Forty years on, Somewhere in Time isn’t getting a reissue. Iron Maiden and Z2 Comics have announced Somewhere in Time: The Graphic Album, arriving March 2, 2027 — an anthology that maps eight comics stories directly onto the album’s eight tracks. The creative roster includes Steve Niles, Kelly Sue DeConnick, David Dastmalchian, Corin Hardy, Leah Moore, Vincent Locke, Goran Parlov, Davide Fabbri, and Bill Sienkiewicz, who contributes the introduction. That lineup signals something well beyond a permanent record of a standard band tie-in.
A Sci-Fi Universe, Eight Tracks at a Time
Marquee comics talent steps into Eddie’s future world with a clear structural framework holding everything together.
DeConnick and illustrator Andy MacDonald handle the framing — a prologue and epilogue tracing the events that lead to the album’s iconic cover moment. That structure gives the anthology a spine without forcing its eight stories into a rigid plot. Sienkiewicz’s presence as introduction writer carries real weight; his involvement extends the project’s reach beyond the Maiden faithful into the broader comics community. Guitarist Adrian Smith described the Somewhere in Time Eddie as his favorite incarnation of the character, citing “genuine power” and menace, per Spin Magazine. That’s a personal read, not an official ranking — but it’s a useful frame for understanding why this particular album earned the treatment from artists shaped by 60s, 70s, & 80s rock mythology.
The collector packaging breaks down as follows:
- Deluxe and Platinum editions arrive in metallic “Time Machine” slipcases with a die-cut green acetate targeting lens and Blake Armstrong cover art
- Both editions include prints of four covers; retailer-exclusive variant covers are available from Tony Harris, Jay Geldhof, and Dan Mumford
- Platinum adds four framed Eddie cards by Davide Fabbri and a bookplate signed by Adrian Smith
- The Deluxe edition includes a rare 7-inch vinyl single of “Wasted Years”; Platinum adds “Stranger in a Strange Land”
- Both editions feature an album-history interview with Adrian Smith, conducted by Phantom’s Dave Shack
This project continues an established Z2 partnership — the publisher previously produced the Piece of Mind 40th-anniversary art book and collaborated with Bruce Dickinson on The Mandrake Project publications. The distinction between licensed merchandise and genuine creative expansion is roughly the gap between a movie novelization and an original follow-up. Somewhere in Time‘s cyborg Eddie and dense futuristic imagery gave the visual storytellers a fully realized world to work within rather than build from scratch — a significant creative advantage.
Arriving Just in Time
The book lands in stores weeks before Iron Maiden’s spring North American run begins.
Iron Maiden opens its North American tour April 14 at the Tacoma Dome, closing with festival appearances at Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio on May 14 and Boardwalk Rock in Ocean City, Maryland on May 16. The March 2 publication date puts the graphic album in your hands roughly six weeks before the first show. For collectors eyeing the Platinum edition, that timing transforms it from a shelf object into something you can actually carry into the concert season.
Legacy artists with strong visual mythologies may now have a working template for what anniversary editions can genuinely accomplish: expand the story rather than simply commemorate it. If you’ve always believed that album cover deserved more than a t-shirt, this is where it finally gets the pages.
