A Can of Paint is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, originally published in Astounding in 1944.

[1] It is a light-hearted look at the first crewed mission to Venus, a "science puzzle" or "problem story" that requires the protagonist to think his way out of a thorny situation.

Unfortunately that insulation quality will kill him due to overheating, long before the equally worrying possibility of it covering his body completely.

Careful not to lift the cube again, he places his hand on the handle and it begins "I contain 2/3rds paint... " and then goes on to read out a complete list of ingredients and application instructions.

He mentions that he is returning with his ship completely filled with cans of this indestructible, self-applying, insulating perfect paint, from which he hopes to make his fortune.

He notes: The hero's problem in "A Can of Paint" – how to get the perfect paint off his body before it kills him – is solved when he discovers that the "Liquid Light" in it is "absorbed" by a bank of "photo-converter cells" which he happens to have on hand; that is to say, that the doshes are distimmed by the Gostack...[6]The complaint is ironic, given that solar cells were invented less than a decade later, and their first use was for spacecraft.

The story remains very similar to the original, although the setting is moved from Venus to a derelict spaceship found in deep space.

The protagonist, Kilgour (played by Aaron Robson) speaks only to his ship's computer (voiced by Jean Franzblau), but the action remains otherwise faithful to the original.