Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has taken his Mandrake Project to the next level with Year One, a deluxe graphic novel collection featuring an unorthodox ingredient…

Words by Felix Bartlett | March 28, 2025

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Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has taken his Mandrake Project to the next level with Year One, a deluxe graphic novel collection featuring an unorthodox ingredient—actual dirt from the grave of his literary hero, William Blake.

This isn’t just a standard hardcover release. The ink used in this special edition was mixed with soil collected from Blake’s burial site, making each copy a macabre yet poetic artifact. Given Dickinson’s long-standing fascination with the Romantic poet—dating back to his 1998 solo album The Chemical Wedding and continuing with The Mandrake Project’s “Rain on the Graves” music video, filmed at Blake’s gravesite—this move feels like classic Bruce: equal parts theatrical, obsessive, and brilliantly weird.

“Finally we are at the end of the beginning,” Dickinson says. “I sometimes get the feeling that I am not fully in control of the story, and that some other entity is squeezing the blood out of my subconscious and turning it into ink on the page before my very eyes.”

The Year One collection compiles the first four issues of The Mandrake Project comics, plus the prologue, spanning 184 pages with behind-the-scenes insights, essays, and an introduction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. The deluxe slipcase edition ups the ante with foil collector cards, a rotating embossed Mandrake dial, and a cast metal version of the medallion seen in the comics and music videos.

Dickinson, a patron of the William Blake Cottage Trust, sees this as more than just a collector’s item—it’s a way to honor Blake’s legacy. “Despite his impact on the world, there is no center for Blake, nowhere people can visit to see where he actually lived and worked during a key part of his life,” he explains. “I want to change this.”

If you’ve ever wanted to own a piece of literary history—literally—this might be your chance.

Pre-orders can be placed now at the Z2 webstore.