Derek Riggs

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Derek Riggs
Born 13 February 1958 (age 59)
Portsmouth, England
Nationality British
Known for Painting, drawing, graphics
Notable work Iron Maiden album covers
Website derekriggs.com
Derek Riggs (born 13 February 1958)[1] is a contemporary British artist best known
for creating the band Iron Maiden's mascot, "Eddie the Head".

Career[edit]
Born in Portsmouth, Riggs is a self-taught artist, both in his traditional painting
and in his digital work.[1] He also attended art school, but he was expelled after
complaining about the course.[1] Riggs' most famous achievement is his work with
Iron Maiden and his creation of Eddie, the band's mascot and subject of their album
and single covers.[2] Riggs' first picture of Eddie was originally entitled
"Electric Matthew Says Hello,"[3] and was actually painted for a possible punk
cover.[4] Iron Maiden's management came across it while looking through Riggs'
portfolio,[5] and asked him to add hair to the figure to make it look less punk-
like.[4] The resulting picture was used for the debut album, Iron Maiden, released
in 1980 and Riggs went on to work with Iron Maiden throughout the 1980s and into
the 90s, creating many of the band's famous album covers.[2] In 1992, however, the
band decided to accept contributions from other artists for their next album, Fear
of the Dark, resulting in much less input from Riggs in recent years.[6]

Riggs has also designed the cover of World's Only Female Tribute to Iron Maiden,
the self-titled debut album by the all-female tribute band, The Iron Maidens, a
piece which was inspired by the Killers album, featuring a similar "Kinky Sex Shop"
which featured in the Iron Maiden artwork.[7]

He has also worked with Iron Maiden lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson for his album
Accident of Birth,[8] Stratovarius for their album Infinite,[9] Gamma Ray for their
Power Plant album,[10] Artension on their 2004 album Future World,[11] Gillman on
their 2003 album Cuauhtemoc,[12] and with many other bands and companies most of
which are featured on his website.