Z2 has announced The Mandrake Project: Year Two, the next installment of the graphic novel saga co-created by Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson and writer Tony Lee. The 184-page volume picks up where the first book left off, sending Necropolis into a near-death experience that propels him into a parallel world where the dark secrets of his family tree — and the forces controlling his fate — come into full, disorienting focus.
Dickinson teased the new volume: “Oh, just hold on to your proverbial hats, folks… This one gets REALLY weird!” Lee added: “You thought the first book was going to get us sued and bring out the pitchforks? You haven’t seen anything yet!”
Beyond the graphic narrative itself, Year Two includes an extensive series of interviews and essays documenting Dickinson‘s 2025 solo tour in support of The Mandrake Project album, along with behind-the-scenes insight from the creative team on how this chapter of the saga developed. The book opens with an introduction by Sacha Gervasi, director of Anvil! The Story of Anvil. It also contains a feature article on Wilhelm Reich, the sociologist and mystic whose controversial work led to his imprisonment by the FBI; Reich died in federal custody in 1957.
The oversized 12″x12″ deluxe and platinum editions are housed in a die-cut slipcase bound with a sealing ribbon and gilt paper edging, and include four new foil collector cards and a new edition of the antiqued metal “Mandrake Project” medallion. Both signed editions will be available directly from Z2 here. A standard 9″x9″ hardcover edition without slipcase will be available through Z2‘s retail partners, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, HMV UK, and independent comic and music shops worldwide.
Z2 editor-in-chief Rantz Hoseley said: “I thought I knew the limits and boundaries of Bruce‘s mad vision for this world, but one thing ‘Year Two’ has made brutally clear… there are no limits to where the story will go! And, let me just say, we are all the luckier for it!”
Dickinson is the vocalist of Iron Maiden and a multidisciplinary figure whose work outside music includes a career as a commercial airline pilot — flying three configurations of Iron Maiden‘s Ed Force One, including a 747 — as well as a BBC radio show, a podcast, television documentaries, films, novels, memoirs, film scripts and comics. He has also competed internationally in fencing and co-created a multi-million-selling beer with Robinsons Brewery. He has developed the mythology behind The Mandrake Project for over a decade.
Lee is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author and comics writer with credits at DC, Marvel, Hachette, IDW, Del Rey and Z2. He is known for his long run on IDW’s Doctor Who comic beginning in 2008, the 2012 Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover series, audio dramas including Confessions of Dorian Gray and Robin of Sherwood, and writing for BBC One and ITV Studios. Pre-orders for The Mandrake Project: Year Two are available at Z2Comics.com/BruceDickinson.
