IRON MAIDEN have issued the following update:

"Yes, it's almost that time of year again!

As we've done in recent years, we're throwing the design of the official Iron Maiden X-Mas card open to you guys. This is the card that gets sent to FC members and to friends of the band.

Each year, the standard has been amazingly high and we've had a real challenge agreeing on a winner.

So, we'd like you guys to do it again. Send us your designs - conforming to the specifications below - and the winner will be picked by Rod, be printed and sent to loads of people. The winner will get a credit on the card and a signed Derek Riggs print (and some other goodies I'm sure). We'll also award prizes to any runners up we particularly like, and even if your card isn't chosen to be printed we'll be using our favourites on the home-page throughout December.

Your design needs to be A5 size (about 21 by 15 cm) - it's up to you which way round it goes (portrait or landscape). The picture is entirely up to you.

Now here's the important stuff - as the design will be printed, you need to make sure you have a high-resolution image that you can send us if we choose your card. If you're hand painting or drawing, no problem, but if you're creating your design from scratch in Photoshop or whatever, please make sure you do it at 600dpi and not at the lower resolution you'd use for things that are going to be displayed only on a monitor. Keep the original in a very safe place, and send us a copy.

How To Submit Your Design:

Please send in your submissions as lower-resolution JPEG or GIF images - we don't need you to send the huge hi-res file until we choose the winner.

Please make sure that you name your file with your own name - eg. JimSmith.jpg - cos otherwise we get hundreds of files called 'maiden.jpg' and it's hard to keep track of which is which!

Email you entries to us web@maidenmail.co.uk, title your email 'XMAS CARD' and please make sure you include your contact details.

This competition is open to everyone - fanclub members and non-fanclub members.

Closing date for entries is October 15th, we'll announce the winner within a couple of weeks of that date (sometimes decisions are hard to make!) Good luck!"