Rocket Raccoon by Jim Jimenez - CAF Mystery Sketch Card

Wow.

I've been on a bit of a spell of no Rocket pieces since the year began, for a variety of reasons. I thought the concept of the mystery sketch cards was pretty neat, and decided this would be one of my first new Rocket pieces of the year(I actually got another one shipped to me the same day, but thats for a later time).

This is also my first sketch card, well, my first official sketch card at least. I have a few small pieces in my collection but these ones in particular are kinda a thing unto themselves, especially with the unique labeled cards they use. Its very cool. So I went for it.

With anything "mystery" themed there's always the trepidation that you may not actually like what you get.... but those fears were dashed when I saw the live streams showing off the pieces. Among them was this one, but obviously not knowing what else was requested I was not certain it was mine. I was certainly hoping it was, and come delivery I was ecstatic to learn that indeed this was the newest addition to my collection.

I actually recorded my opening of this. Im working on getting that to the fine folks at CAF as requested, but in the meantime suffice to say I'm blown away. I had heard of Jim Jimenez before but I wasn't acutely aware of his level of mastery to be able to pull this off at this size. This is, after all a sketch card... but you wouldn't know it just looking at the piece. It could easily be sealed up to 9x12 and be convincing. Whats also clear is how good he is with colors. This picture doesn't quite do it justice. Its vibrant and energetic... exactly what I like to see.

In typical fashion I didn't add any costume requests. This was all the doing of the artist. And the way he renders Rocket is very very appealing to me, who's seen many a rendition on this character.

A to say I really couldn't be happier with this. Its everything I could've wanted it to be. Thanks to CAF, Jim Jimenez and Next Comic Art!