Wayne Coyne Announces Signed Graphic Novel Adaptation of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne reimagines the band’s beloved 2002 album as a 420-page illustrated odyssey, available soon via Third Man Books.

Third Man Books has announced a limited, signed edition of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: The Original Story by The Flaming Lips, a full-length graphic novel written and illustrated by the band’s frontman, Wayne Coyne. The 420-page, full-colour hardcover will come housed in a custom-designed slipcase and will be signed by Coyne himself.

Fans who pre-order the book before November 6, 2025 will receive a personalised copy, while orders placed afterward will still include Coyne’s signature but without personalisation. An exclusive animated announcement video has been released to accompany the news, available to watch now via Third Man Books.

The graphic novel expands on the world behind The Flaming Lips’ acclaimed 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which earned the band their first GRAMMY and included hits like “Do You Realize??,” “Fight Test,” and the title track. Coyne describes the project as a way to finally tell the full story behind the album’s surreal characters and imagery.

“There were, I think, about eight or nine of original paintings that are associated with the original release of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots back in 2002,” says Wayne Coyne. “There's the cover painting, obviously. But we released a lot of singles back then and I did a painting for just about every single, so there was quite a few of them. So, for the extended story of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, I kind of made it a rule that I should incorporate all these paintings in there. So if you'd seen these paintings and thought, oh, there must be a story here, I included every one of those. It was kind of a reverse engineering, where I had the painting and then figured out some element of the story. So, these 20 or so images that maybe you've seen before, now they're part of this bigger, giant story.””

The limited signed edition of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: The Original Story by The Flaming Lips is available to pre-order now via thirdmanbooks.com, with release expected by the holiday season.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Flaming Lips