Projected poster art for Jodorowsky’s Dune, the movie that never was. Paul Atreides/Muad’dib is at center. The names of the designers are at lower left, and if you follow their work, you can pinpoint what elements of the illustration they worked on: Foss the spacecraft, Giger the sandworm, Moebius the characters and perhaps that landscape. …
The recent release of Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune got me thinking about the many depictions of Feyd Rautha, Paul Atreides’ antithesis and rival, created by artists over the years. Why not the saintly Paul himself, you ask? Well, he’s just not as interesting. He spends most of the book in a stillsuit, the …
I’ve always considered Dune and its many sequels more science fantasy than science fiction. Sure, there’s starships and other planets, not to mention sandworm biology, but there’s also a Catholic-like sisterhood with sinister mind powers, swordfights, a Chosen One trope, and a feudal society with emperors, princesses, and dukes. Herbert cribbed a lot from human …