Bruce Dickinson and Z2 Comics Work Together on Mandrake Project Comic Series

The latest in Bruce Dickinson news (and you never know quite what is coming with that intro), the iconic musician is collaborating with Z2 comics to make a comic for his upcoming solo album The Mandrake Project.

The comic, a storyboarding of the concepts on the album, will be 12 issues, and the series will feature on the battle between science an magic and the quest for immortality. Author Tony Lee, who has also worked on Doctor Who, Marvel, and DC comics, wrote the story, and Staz Johnson of Marvel and DC did the artwork. Bill Sienkiewicz of Moon Night and New Mutants fame is doing the cover, and Tony Peteri (Amazing Spider-Man, Witchblade) and Gabo (DC, Image) do the lettering and coloring.

The first issue will drop January 17 at comic shows and online at Z2 Comics. A select 666 copies are now available, brought to you in a special bundle containing a signed tradig card and trading card pouch, a certificate of authenticity, a Bill Sienkiewicz illustrated print, and of course, the issue.

“Early in the process of writing my new album, the idea of a companion comic book began to take shape in my mind,” Dickinson explains. “So I approached Z2 who were recommended to me by Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy, The Shield) and Sacha Gervasi (My Dinner with Hervé, Anvil). I then found out that my management was already working on the POM Maiden graphic novel which I contributed the Revelations story to! I then pitched them with a fully formed concept and written storyline which they immediately understood and enthusiastically started fleshing out plans and ideas with me! I knew right then that they would be the perfect creative team to help bring my own ideas to fruition … and here they are!”

“Z2’s model has always rested firmly in the graphic novel space, but when we sat down with Bruce and discussed the story of The Mandrake Project, and the experience that he wanted the readers to have with it, we realized two very important things: First, that this was a story that we had to be a part of. It reminded us of reading the iconic titles from Vertigo. The second realization was that The Mandrake Project had to be released as a comic series and, as anyone in comics knows, releasing a series is a different animal,” says Z2 Editor-in-Chief Rantz A. Hoseley.