Ponda Baba. A spice smuggler with partner Dr Cornelius Evazan for Jabba the Hutt, his claim to fame is picking a fight in the Mos Eisley Cantina with the wrong aspiring Jedi. "Watch your step" warned Ben Kenobi as they got ready to enter the Cantina. "I'm ready for anything" was Luke's reply. Luke and Ben knew the best place to find a pilot to take them to Alderaan was the Cantina, and while Ben did the searching, Luke just wanted a drink. Ponda Baba approached the thirsty young Luke and shoves him. I'm going to assume here that Luke was on Ponda's favorite bar stool, which in this cantina is grounds for a fight (yes, I know Luke wasn't actually sitting, but it plays better in my version of the story so just go with it lol). Dr Evazan sticks his nose in the middle of the dispute warning Luke "He doesn't like you".. after Luke gives a half hearted "I'm sorry", Evazan shoots back with the warning "I don't like you either. You just watch yourself.. we're wanted men. I have the death sentence on 12 systems!" I think here it was Luke's nonchalant "I'll be careful" that set off Dr Evazan. Ends up costing  Evazan his life, and instigator Ponda Baba part of his arm. The lesson here: It's not worth it to mess with a farmboy getting a drink if he's traveling with an old man with a lightsaber (really specific lesson, but it could save your life someday). 

   This sketch comes from 2017 Galactic Files Reborn, the last Star Wars set that Mike worked on for Topps. I featured a Dengar sketch from this set back on October 28th. By now Topps had gone to all photorealistic sketches, so Mike had to go away from his normal cartoony or sugar boogerz styles and go more photorealistic, putting a lot of detail and realism into these sketches. I think he does it seamlessly and it shows the depth of his talent. The sketch has really nice detail and color, and as a friend pointed out to me yesterday the starfield background is cool. 

   On a side note, I decided to trade this sketch for a different Michael Duron sketch, so I wanted to feature this one before it left my possession. It's going to a great collector, and he's trading me a great sketch which I'm sure I'll feature in the near future. 

   As always, thanks for stopping by and reading!

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