Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Nice Interview with Derek Riggs

How do you feel about The Number Of The Beast sleeve 30 years on? Many people would say it’s the definitive Iron Maiden artwork – would you agree?


I turned out a lot of pictures back then. I did them and they shot out the door, then I never saw them again. Really that picture is just one more in a very long line of pictures that I did in the 1980s. I am a professional illustrator and I don’t get emotionally attached to my pictures. They are just the means for me to earn a living. For me to become attached to a picture would be rather like a carpenter getting attached to a chair. It’s a bit ridiculous really.

I don’t know if it’s the definitive Maiden cover. That’s not my call really, that’s up to the fans. I did a load of pictures for Maiden, they covered a vast area of subject matter. I am not sure what would make one definitive and another one not. What defines Maiden’s covers? I don’t know, the first one I guess, the one set the place for Eddie. All the others followed that first one.

I wish I had more time to paint it, I could have done a much better job. Maybe I should do a new version, now that I have more time to do it. I could do it the way I really wanted to. Or maybe I can’t be bothered… What do you think I should do?

read the rest in here

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My vote: Killers.

AaronX said...

yeah "Killers" is such a great cover!