Rocket Raccoon Stands Armed on an Alien Cliff — Print & Oil Painting

The saturation measurement here is the highest anywhere in this lot and the reason is a two colour scheme applied without compromise. The sky is laid in with a wide flat brush in bands of navy, cobalt and cerulean that never blend, and against it every warm thing in the picture belongs to the figure. There is no third colour and no neutral.

He is small in the frame and placed low, standing on a dark ridge that runs across the bottom fifth of the canvas. The feet are set apart, the weight is even, the tail swings out to the left as a counterweight, and the head is turned slightly so that the muzzle catches the light. He is not moving and he is not posing.

The rifle is longer than he is tall. It is held muzzle up in the right hand with the stock resting near the hip, and it has been painted as a stack of simplified blocks in grey, orange and pale blue with a bracket or sight assembly at the top. A second weapon hangs at his left thigh. The flight suit is orange red with white and blue panels and a hard blue pauldron on the right shoulder.

Away on the right a pale spire rises out of the haze, tapering and slightly bent, drawn in three strokes and then left alone. It is the only structure anywhere in the picture and the artist has refused to explain it.

The pose belongs to somebody reading ground rather than holding it. In the comics he is written as the planner far more often than the muscle: he takes command of teams, works out the approach, and is the one who has already decided where everybody will be standing in four minutes. A small figure standing still on high ground with the gun held vertical is a picture of that job rather than of a firefight. Part of our Marvel collection, beside the same head worked in loose blue and purple brushstrokes and a leather coat and floating embers, alone.