See the Pyro over there? Steve Gordon drew that for me, he did. I bought a copy of his ‘Expressions and Attitudes’ book directly from him and he likes to personalise for you. So when I asked him for a Pyro, he was thrilled to bits to finally get to do someone from Evolution other than Rogue or Nightcrawler. I did the colouring myself: I like doing that. I’ve done a whole swathe of Evolution colouring. Such as Rogue and Avalanche. All colouring in Photoshop.
Pyro
I like Steve Gordon’s take on the X-Verse. He’s responsible for the character design in the Avengers films too (if you haven’t seen them, see them. Especially the outtakes. Eat at Tony Stark’s House of Ribs!)
Note: before my old computer crashed, I also started on my most ambitious project ever: a hand-drawn with the mouse, hand-coloured Bumblebee from Transformers. Then my old machine crashed and I lost the PSD file and have never been bothered to start it again. This is as far as I ever got. I was rather proud.
Lots of people wonder why it is that I like Pyro out of the Brotherhood. I’ll be honest with you here – it’s largely because he died a hero, realising the error of his ways. His is a tragic little story, and I love me a bit of Australian hack-writer angst. The Evolution Pyro was strangely endearing on the grounds that he was quite bonkers – and the film Pyro is Aaron “Shorter Than Previously Thought” Stanford, who’s a great actor put into a bad role.
It’s also the fact, of course, that Pyro is a writer. And yeah – he writes dime store trash gothic romances. But I can forgive him that, because he can create tangible constructs out of fire. So St. John Allerdyce has been my favourite X-verse villain for many a year. Mr. Sinister comes in at a close second, though. He’s so…British. But not in a Betsy Braddock kind of a way.
So Pyro. Yeah. I love him. And the Human Torch. I have a thing for guys who can control flames. So sue me. (And yes, I did watch ‘Sky High’ and think Warren Peace was pretty darned cute. Always with the fire guys). Hence – Pyroriffic.
I’ve been a fan of the X-verse since I was eleven, which is rather a long time ago now. I always had a bit of a Thing for Gambit (what woman in her right mind WOULDN’T?), but I outgrew him and latched onto some of the other characters a bit, particularly Cannonball and Colossus. Cannonball is fun purely because of the vast clan of Guthries that follow along after him and Colossus is just a big ol’ hunk of Russian fluff. And can throw Wolverine helluva far. As evidenced by the t-shirt that the nice Black Library authors signed for me. (£10 per compliment, lads).
I also love the Fantastic Four – particularly the Ultimate Fantastic Four (even more so if it’s a Millar/Hitch combo – they’re like the dream team for me). Sad, I know.
I have tried to break out of the Marvel-verse many times. Indeed, the Lovely Mr. Kyme [tm] has recommended some Batman series for me to start with. But I’ve now lost those with the loss of the BL forums (hint).
Anyway, why am I blathering on about Marvel comics? It’s Friday, I’ve escaped from work and there’s a bottle of wine in the shop with my name on it. Because my name IS Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sarah Cawkwell's Blog 