Cover: Skottie Young

Rocket Raccoon #1

Sep 2014 · Marvel · 3.99 USD

📊 ~293,913 copies sold its debut month

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“A Chasing Tale Part 1”

About this Issue

Rocket Raccoon #1 (2014) marks the character's first true ongoing solo series in nearly three decades — the previous solo outing being Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola's four-issue 1985 miniseries — making it a generational milestone for one of Marvel's most improbable mainstream breakout figures. It arrived at the precise cultural inflection point when Rocket was transitioning from a cult cosmic oddity into a household name, launching just weeks before James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy film hit theaters in August 2014. The series gave Eisner Award-winning creator Skottie Young full reign over both story and art, establishing a distinct visual and tonal identity — irreverent, emotionally layered, and self-aware — that would define how the post-MCU generation of readers understood the character. It also introduced the Exterminators, a militia of Rocket's estranged ex-girlfriends, as a narrative device that wove genuine emotional vulnerability into the comedic action premise, a balance Young had telegraphed was core to his vision of the character.

In "A Chasing Tale Part 1," Rocket Raccoon finds himself on the run after a date with Jo ends in chaos when he’s mistaken for a criminal following a wrestling match featuring Groot. With Star-Lord’s help, Rocket uncovers a shocking accusation linking him to multiple murders, forcing him to confront the truth before the authorities catch up. Written and illustrated by Skottie Young, with colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu and letters by Jeff Eckleberry, this 3.99 USD comic from 2014 features a cover by Skottie Young that captures the story’s frantic energy.

writer, artist, inker Skottie Young · colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu · letterer Jeff Eckleberry · cover Skottie Young

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $87

CGC 9.8 · 306 in census $483*

CGC 9.6 · 86 in census $278

CGC 9.4 · 22 in census $215*

CGC 9.2 · 8 in census $199*

CGC 9.0 · 7 in census $184*

CGC 8.5 · 9 in census $145*

Show all 8 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 2 in census $79*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $60*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

In February 2014, Marvel announced Skottie Young — already acclaimed for his Eisner Award-winning Oz adaptations and his ubiquitous baby-variant cover work — as the writer and artist of a new in-continuity Rocket Raccoon ongoing series, part of the broader Marvel NOW! publishing initiative. The series was explicitly engineered to ride the wave of the August 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy film release, with Marvel simultaneously releasing a Free Comic Book Day Rocket Raccoon one-shot and a Rocket and Groot prose novel by Andy Lanning as companion products. Young was given the rare opportunity to function as sole storyteller on both script and pencils for the opening arc, with Jake Parker and Filipe Andrade later rotating in as guest artists on subsequent issues. The debut issue shipped July 2, 2014 — just over a month before the film opened — and demand was sufficient to push it through at least four printings, with variant editions including a 1-for-25 retailer incentive cover by Mouse Guard creator David Petersen, a Skottie Young baby variant, a Stan Lee Lego variant, a blank variant, and a movie tie-in cover.

Trivia · 8 facts

First issue of Rocket Raccoon's first ongoing solo series since the original four-issue Mantlo/Mignola miniseries ended in 1985 — a gap of roughly 29 years.
Written and illustrated entirely by Skottie Young, a multiple Eisner Award winner, making this his first major ongoing in-continuity Marvel series as a full writer-artist.
Published July 2, 2014 as part of the Marvel NOW! initiative, deliberately timed to precede the Guardians of the Galaxy theatrical film by approximately five weeks.
The issue's central plot — Rocket framed for a crime he didn't commit and hunted by both intergalactic authorities and a militia of ex-girlfriends called 'the Exterminators' — was entirely new story territory, not an adaptation of prior material.
The first arc (collected in the trade paperback Rocket Raccoon, Vol. 1: A Chasing Tale, issues #1–6) brought back Blackjack O'Hare, an anthropomorphic rabbit antagonist from Rocket's Halfworld-era comics history, as the architect behind Rocket's framing.
The series ran 11 issues total (2014–2015), with Filipe Andrade and Jake Parker rotating in as artists on later chapters after Young handled the opening arc solo.
Multiple variant covers were produced for issue #1, including a 1-for-25 retailer incentive by Mouse Guard creator David Petersen, a Skottie Young baby variant, a blank cover, a Stan Lee Lego variant, and a movie tie-in edition.
The series was launched alongside a Free Comic Book Day Rocket Raccoon one-shot (written by Joe Caramagna, art by Adam Archer) as part of Marvel's coordinated promotional push around the 2014 film.