Tap_Legion2 said:
Ah...ok....Gimme a few hours and things start to sink in.
Being a fan of most comicbook poop , I instantly saw the similarities between this cover and Bradstreet delusional artwork.
I did a little online searching and confirmed that he did indeed do the piece.
If you go to his website , its filled with alot of pieces that looks almost exactly the same. Even his "sketches" are nothing more than traced photos. I've yet to see this guy draw anything freehand that remotely resembles his covers...this piece included.
Riggs was far superior to anything Bradstreet could hope to be.
Email interview of Tim Bradstreet about AMOLAD artwork
Following my usual tactics of interviewing artists who have collaborated with the band through email, I managed to get some questions replied by the guy behind the new artwork: Tim Bradstreet. As you will see, he's seems like a very nice guy, and I thank him for his time and his lenghty replies, which will provide further info for my book. This interview was taken to be included in my book, but I can't help sharing. Just make sure you mention the interviewer if you wat to use the interview 'cause I can't claim it as my own and see it pop up uncredited somewhere else on the web, it hurts my book's reliability. Tim has incorporated his answers inside my original email, so it kind of feels like a chat session. Enjoy:
Ever since the artwork for the new Iron Maiden album was published on IM.com,
I was on a search to find out who designed it, and my searching has
lead to you. If I am wrong, please ignore this email. I am writing a book on
Maiden (in greek) and I would be delighted if you could share some info with
me, like:
No worries. You found the right guy.
- what the band wanted to get across with the album cover? Seems like it
is designed to feature different elements from different periods / wars and not just one.
This is a better question for the band. They are the only guys really
qualified to answer this. I could give you my interpretation but I mainly
worked through a intermediary and did not have much contact with the band
aside from approvals and changes.
My take is that Maiden are kind of going back to basics with their visuals.
Eddie leads his little army of the dead into battle. I always try and create
a story around an image because it helps me to plug myself into the world a
bit better. The way I see it is that the skeleton troopers are the tortured
souls of very bad men. Men who in the theater of war have committed
atrocities while alive. As each of them were killed in combat or through
some other means, Eddie offered them a deal, rot in Hell or live forever.
All it will cost is your soul. Easy decision for most, they took the deal
not realizing that living forever means living in their own rotting carcass
with no will of their own, commanded by the demonic Ed Hunter.
War is hell. Meet the Devil.
It's been mentioned here and there on some of the forums that it seems a
political statement. People are confusing the image as some kind of comment
on the Iraqi War. I do not think this is the case. All of the weapons and
gear are WWII era with the exception maybe of the tank which I believe is
Korean War era.
If anything I believe it is a more playful theme, it reminds me of the old
EC comics like "Weird War Tales" or "Haunted Tank". That makes sense to me
given Maiden's past love affair with literature and film.
- Were you asked to depict Eddie in the distance so that he doesn't appear
too much in the foreground or was it something that just happened as you
were designing along?
Normally when I am asked to do a job like this the client wants to see my
version of their concept. In this case the concept was already fleshed out
pretty far and I worked from existing key art that the band had already
approved. The key art was very tiny and composed of elements that had been
culled together from many sources. My first pass was a line drawing directly
over that pre-existing key art. Because of the low resolution - patched
together nature of the key art it quickly became apparent that I would need
to recreate it from scratch. So I set about putting together a photo shoot,
collecting props and re-shooting each of the elements from the key art.
This was 1000 times better. Once I had completed a high resolution
re-creation I set about illustrating and painting it.
-what photos you used as models (We have already found one photo refference,
the dead guy with the hand across his neck from an old WWI photo)
Yep, that may be the only thing you find. I did completely re-shoot that
element but the band liked the original body better, not sure why. So I had
to toss my version and stick back in the original one. I had also
photographed a burned corpse that I borrowed from KNB FX Group in Los
Angeles. This was the body immediately below the Tank between the soldiers.
Again, Maiden liked the original body better so that is what you see on the
cover. I'd really love to show my original final version of the Album sleeve
before Maiden asked us for additional changes (and what we ended up with).
However, that is completely up to them. The only way I think the public will
ever see that is if I am granted permission from the band to publish both
versions in an art book.
-Is that an Easter Island Head figure among the bulduing ruins in the back?
(refference to the H bomb?)
Hmm, you know every piece of artwork is subjective. Everyone will see
something different and make their own kind of sense of it. I prefer to let
the work speak for itself and let the public interpret it. There may be all
kinds of hidden stuff in there. That is for you to find and decide.
Closing, I would like to congradulate you on the artwork, it really went
down well among the fans, which, believe me, is a VERY hard thing to pull
and hasn't happened for the last dozen of Maiden artworks. I hope to receive
a reply but I understand if you can't.
Yeah, I've been ecstatic over the way it has been received thus far. I've
been a Maiden fan since their first record in '80. I was completely blown
away to get this opportunity. I've been a HUGE fan of Derek Riggs' work with
Maiden so for me this is pretty special. I kept saying through this whole
job, "If Riggs is not coming back then Maiden definitely needs to find a
consistent look again. I'm your guy." Hopefully the band will think so too.
Cheers and good luck to anything you do!
Cheers - Tim Bradstreet - San Diego, CA.
But, there isn't. :Smug: 
