While working on Topps' Star Wars Galaxy 2 trading card series, Tim Bradstreet proposed doing an unmasked Tusken Raider piece. The editor really liked the idea and gave Bradstreet the go ahead to proceed. After submitting the inked piece (See it
HERE ) and finishing a watercolor painting (See it
HERE ), Bradstreet got the unfortunate news from the editor that Lucasfilm turned down his concept. They wanted the Tusken Raider to remain mysterious.
To salvage this project, Bradstreet decided to create a whole new character, an enigmatic bounty hunter indigenous to the Planet Tatooine by modifying his unmasked Tusken Raider concept. Bradstreet added additional details to the face, costume and equipment. This revised watercolor painting got approved and it became part of the SW Galaxy II trading card set in 1993.
Bill Smith, who was an editor at West End Games, created a full back-story of Bradstreet's bounty hunter and named him Taggor Bren, which was then featured inside the premier issue of Topps’ Star Wars Galaxy Magazine in 1994. Taggor Bren later got a first comic book appearance in 1997 when Bradstreet put the character in the line-up with Boba Fett on the cover of Dark Horse Comic’s Boba Fett Wizard Special Edition #1/2 (See it
HERE ).
Since I acquired the unused Tusken Raider Unmasked painting from a collector in 2008, I just assumed that Bradstreet placed an acetate overlay with the new added details on to the original concept painting for publishing. With this find, I know now that Bradstreet painted an entirely separate revised artwork and it had been tucked away in his studio all these years. I'm grateful to Tim for helping me unite all three artworks together.
