The Dune Comic That Never Was

[Rich Johnston]

A couple years ago, Matt Bellisle was approached by Bluewater Comics to help them with a pitch they were doing for Frank Herbert's Dune series. He writes about it for Bleeding Cool;

I assumed they had writers and artists already lined up for the main part of their proposal, but I was asked to contribute a cover to show a style I would bring to the front of the books. Because I was such a huge DUNE fan, I asked if I could also contribute more than the cover and have a chance to do some back-up stories, that would go behind Bluewater's main story.

For that, I brought in my good friend, Chris Garrity to also contribute to the pitch. Our hope was that Chris and I would write a multi-timeline story with Chris doing the pencils to one timeline and I drawing the art for the other timeline. Our plan was to have it based on a tribe of Fremen, not part of Paul Atreides' group, but another faction on the planet. That way we weren't messing with any continuity issues with the main story. Those timelines would then intersect, throwing both sides into the middle of a war on Arakis. While we never shared any of these story ideas or text with the people at Bluewater, they agreed to letting us contribute to the pitch. The deadline for the pitch was just a couple days away, so I did my cover art and Chris did one page of pencils for the interior of the back-up story.

The pitch happened and then I never heard back from Bluewater as to the status of how it went or what had happened. Typically these kinds of things take time, so I waited patiently, but nothing came of it. I was obviously never paid for this work and never signed any kind of contract for the work either.

So now that a few years have gone by and BOOM! has announced that they have landed the license to work on adapting the Dune books, I thought it might be interesting to share what could have been...

Here is the cover art I had done and the interior pencils Chris had drawn.

[Meyeraustin]

The cover is the Hell that is Photoshop but the interiors are sweet. What other stuff has this guy done?

[Matt Spatola]

I'm also not keen on the background of the cover but the interior page is fabulous.

[ahlhelm]

I highly doubt either the Herbert family or the publisher (Bantam, I believe) would agree to Bluewater's licensing terms. It is a little surprising that no one has ever made a Dune comic though. Seems like a no brainer.

[_OM_]

I highly doubt either the Herbert family or the publisher (Bantam, I believe) would agree to Bluewater's licensing terms. It is a little surprising that no one has ever made a Dune comic though. Seems like a no brainer.

...One would think, but from what I've heard over the years the various pitches that have been made have either been rejected by the Herbert estate, or been put on indefinite backburner status while Brian and Kevin were trying to figure out how to put Frank's notes for Dune 7 into something legible. Some of those pitches included prequels set during the Butlerian Jihad and the years leading up to Dune, only to find that these periods would themselves be covered by their own set(s) of novels. One or two even proposed to provide the ending that Frank was unable to deliver due to his passing, and depending on which side of the Duniverse you're sitting on will determine whether or not the rejection of these pitches were a good thing. YMMV, depending on whether Shai-Hulud chooses to swallow you with the thumper.

[fredmanson]

Muab-Dib and Shai-Hulud are returning, at last, on a visual media!!!!

I am so eager to read the prequel/sequel of the Dune Saga (in English this time - the French translation is sometimes very... annoying and you surprise yourself in doing flap-flap on a big numbers of pages!!!...), and when I read somewhere that Dune is going to be published by Boom!, my heart is hardly booming!!!!!!

Boom!, with their Elric, now Valen The Outcast, and the future Dune comic book, is really the more mature publisher I ever have seen.

OK, Boom! has had a very long march on the sand of Arakis, but soon, a Fremen oasis will give them a very visible situation on the shelves and in the comic books industry.

As I have dropped all the titles from the Big Twos (yep, also 25 comic books series from the DC New 52 too!!), I now have enough money to invest in my pleasure: to read really pleasant comic books and the Dune series is one of them!!!!!

PS: could you help me? I am looking for English editions of the entire Dune sage (prequels/the classical Dune books/sequels). Do they exist in an omnibus format? Is it better to have them in individual books or in an omnibus format?? I prefer mass paper-book format due to the prices of the books, but if trade paper-book format is much better else if they are expensive for a few $$$, I will see.
Thank you very much for your help!!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone in this crazy World!!!!

[trippingmartian]

Why is Bruce Wayne on Tattooine? And what is that dreadful outfit he's wearing?

[Fysh]

PS: could you help me? I am looking for English editions of the entire Dune sage (prequels/the classical Dune books/sequels). Do they exist in an omnibus format? Is it better to have them in individual books or in an omnibus format?? I prefer mass paper-book format due to the prices of the books, but if trade paper-book format is much better else if they are expensive for a few $$$, I will see.
Thank you very much for your help!!!

Hi Fred, I'm not aware of any reason to go for the single books over the collections - there's a paperback collection of the first three Dune books named The Great Dune Trilogy. You can get it reasonably cheaply on thebookdepository.co.uk along with (as far as I know) the rest of the Dune books. BD do free worldwide delivery and are generally very reasonably priced, so I think that's probably a good place to start looking.

[_OM_]

...For those of us who've read the Dune books since the first book was printed, it's required a bit of jumping around a bit with the chronology in order to understand just what happens when Sandworms of Dune finally wraps things up the way Frank supposedly intended the main original epic to be resolved. However, there are those who've preferred to read the novels in their fictional chronological progression, something that's only been recently possible and even now still has some new story arcs being developed, with the current one still unfinished to allow for at least one of those new arcs to be published, and reportedly may include an additional two books to complete:

The Butlerian Jihad: comprised by the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004), by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

• Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002)
• Dune: The Machine Crusade (2003)
• Dune: The Battle of Corrin (2004)

Another series of prequel novels featuring the foundation of the Imperium, the various Guilds, CHOAM and the Spice Melange as the main currency bloodline of the Imperium has been announced - see details below - with the first novel expected sometime in 2012.


The Prelude to Dune Trilogy: A prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Brian Herbert and Anderson, set ~20 years prior to the events of Dune.

• Dune: House Atreides (1999)
• Dune: House Harkonnen (2000)
• Dune: House Corrino (2001)

The Ascension of the Atreides: consisting primarily of the first three novels by Frank Herbert.

• Dune (1965)
• Dune Messiah (1969)
• Children of Dune (1976)

The original trilogy has been expanded a bit with the addition of the Heroes of Dune interquel series (2008–present) by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. So far, there have been only two novels in this series:

• Paul of Dune (2008)
• The Winds of Dune (2009)

Prior to the decision to write another set of prequel novels, Brian and Kevin had announced two more books in the Heroes of Dune series, the names of each changed from announcement to announcement:

• The Throne of Dune (formerly Irulan of Dune)
• Leto of Dune (formerly The Golden Path of Dune)

According to Brian and Kevin, they've decided to take a break and instead produce a different prequel series featuring the establishment, development and evolution of the various Guilds, with a novel dedicated each to the Spacing Guild and Norma Cenva's expansion of the Navigator School, the foundation of Mohandas Suk's School and the reason behind the School's focus from healing for the sake of healing to healing only those who could afford to pay, the fate of Gilbertus Albans and the founding of his Mentat School, and the efforts by the Corrinos to stabilize the new Imperium amidst all the new factions, including the creation of CHOAM and the establishment of Melange as the currency that binds the Imperium together.


The Reign and Fall-Down-Go-BOOM! (Literally!) of the God Emperor: consisting of only one book, and is considered the nadir of the original series of six books.

• God Emperor of Dune (1981) by Frank Herbert

It's at this point that two books are recommended as necessary reading in order to restore one's karmic imbalance following the rather disappointing tone and story of God Emperor of Dune:

• National Lampoon's Doon by Ellis Weiner (1984)
• Songs of Muad'dib, by Frank Herbert and edited by Brian Herbert (1992)
• The Road to Dune (2005), by Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert

...The second book is a collection of Dune-related poems that Frank wrote prior to his death, and compiled by Brian. It's hard to find these days, but it's worth the hunt for the completists. I will warn you kids, tho - I've only seen one copy in the used book stores since I found my copy in 2003, and that was after searching for it for over two years in three different cities' worth of used book stores. Again, it's not necessary in order to understand Frank's main epic, but more of a "soundtrack" for the first six books than anything else.

...The third book is a companion book for the main six books of the Dune saga, and is the closest to a "Making Of" book that we've gotten so far. It includes scenes cut from the books, as well as the original Spice Planet novella that was the basis for the original Dune serialization in Analog. While not quite as in-depth as, say, Roddenberry and Whitfield/Poe's The Making of Star Trek, a better analogy would be that of Roddenberry's Inside Star Trek LP from the late 70's.

...As for the first book...trust me. After the big let-down of the fourth book, you'll need a good laugh, and this book will provide it. It's out of print, but you can usually find copies in most used book stores, located in the Dune section of the sci-fi books. The only thing it lacks is the Griswolds visiting Arrakeen on vacation

The Return from the Scattering and Krailzec: the end of the Dune saga, which took a two-decade break between Chapterhouse and Hunters due to the death of Frank Herbert in 1986.

• Heretics of Dune (1984) by Frank Herbert
• Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) by Frank Herbert
• Hunters of Dune (2006) by Frank Herbert
• Sandworms of Dune (2007) by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson

Note that there are important plot elements in the last two books by Brian and Kevin that require The Butlerian Jihad trilogy be read in order to understand their importance, especially to the resolution of the Big Plot Element And It's Deux Ex Machina McGuffin in Sandworms of Dune. There is one minor plot element that requires at least knowing the basic synopsis of Paul of Dune, but as Brian and Kevin recap the apropos event for the reader - necessary because Paul of Dune hadn't even been published yet - this retconned reference material is optional to the reader even though said book has now seen print.

...On a side note, Brian has also noted on occasion that there have been discussions between himself and Kevin over the possibility of at least one additional book detailing the life and myths surrounding the one Corrino who's presented as being someone possessed of a great level of honor and integrity, Crown Prince Rafael, with the idea being that sometimes it's possible for power not to corrupt, and that myths can be far closer to the truth than some can realize. This book would still be several years ahead in the future of the Dune production schedule, and Brian has gone so far as to consider the possibility of letting another writer take on the task. IIRC, the name most commonly suggested to write such a one-shot has been Peter David, a suggestion I personally seconded to Brian in e-mail quite some years ago..

...Anyway, hope this helps those of you wishing to dive in to the Duniverse head-first into the mouth of Shai-Hulud. Quite a bit of reading, but it should keep you occupied on the toilet during "quality time" for at least a year or two.

[Comicsfan101]

Thanks for the list, OM. I'm missing a couple of those and will have to go hunting now.