Michael Sandle, born (1936) and brought up on the Isle of Man, is best known as a sculptor but spent most of his time whilst a student at the Slade in the etching and lithography studios. In a statement made in 1988 he averred that printmaking was a seminal activity for him, which significantly affected his development as an artist, particularly the way he continued to draw and he confessed to sometimes having a longing to make prints.

In the early 1970s Sandle made several screenprints where the hard-edged contrast between black ink and metallic-coloured ground made for a particularly harsh effect, well suited to his subject matter which often addressed brutality and violence. In much of his work, both graphic and sculptural, the image of Mickey Mouse has been used as a kind of metaphor for American military aggression. Here the belt of bullets and the barrel of a gun form an almost abstract pattern in which one of the ears of the famous cartoon character can also be discerned.