By Zack Quaintance — This week’s prequel comic, Dune House Atreides #1, is much more than your usual film tie-in comic. It’s much more than an afterthought or attempt to cash in on a forthcoming film adaptation (which, let’s face it, might remain forthcoming for a while due to pandemic). It’s a clear and evident addition to Dune cannon, penned by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the stewards of all things Dune following original creator Frank Herbert’s death some years ago.

And it reads as vital and additive. The plot is almost exactly what you’d expect from a book like this, working to show the audience hints of the political conditions that make Dune so compelling, as well as the ways that the central cast of characters were selected for the (let’s face it again) awful mission to Arrakis that is the plot of the novel. There’s even an effort made to explore a bit the father-son relationship between Leto and Paul, which to me has long felt like one of the most under-used facets of Dune as a concept, though to be totally honest I’ve never badly wanted to see it explored.

Anyway, that’s all fairly welcome and rote. What I did find surprising in this comic, however, was the artwork put forth by the team of Dev Pramanik and Alex Giumares. To me that has long been the real challenge with Dune, recreating a set of visuals that were never meant for a visual medium, created in what retroactively feels like start defiance of visualizing them. Things like the moisture suits, sandworms, and even the central spice itself (as well at the mind states it solicits), all seem to exist in my mind’s eye as amorphous ideas, delivered as they were in the novel as facts of life with minimal explanation.

The same holds true with the characters, with the exception of Baron Harkonnen, who is shown to us here in earlier days when he was not as disgusting as the man described in the novel. And I’m not here to really weigh in on whether the visual choices in this comic work, mostly because I suspect that results will vary wildly depending on what readers of the series had in their heads. There’s also an issue here wherein one suspects that the designs in this comic were culled from those of the aforementioned film, making it tough to judge this comic on whether it succeeded recreating visuals for what had previously mostly just existed in a novel.

What I will say is that for myself as a long-time fan of Dune, I found this comic to be fast and compelling. It didn’t strike me as powerfully as the book did, but that’s okay — Dune is a singular sci-fi classic with a clear influence on some of the mega franchises of today, including both Game of Thrones and Star Wars. A prequel comic in advance of a major film revival need only stoke the embers of past interest in the book and coming interest in the film, and this comic very much does that.

Overall: Dune - House Atreides #1 aims to be a sort of appetizer to the forthcoming film adaptation, and it succeeds wildly in that way, stoking my long-time interest in Dune as a concept and franchise. There might not be much here for Dune newbies, but that’s totally fine. They can all come to this after they’ve seen the film. 8.0./10

REVIEW: Dune - House Atreides #1

Dune - House Atreides #1
Writer: Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Artist: Dev Pramanik
Colorist: Alex Giumares
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
New York Times best-selling novelists Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, alongside Dev Pramanik , adapt their acclaimed prequel to the groundbreaking Dune in comic book form for the first time, perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike. Set in the years leading up the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Dune -- which inspired the upcoming feature film from Legendary Pictures -- DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES transports readers to the far future on the desert planet Arrakis where Pardot Kynes seeks its secrets. Meanwhile, a violent coup is planned by the son of Emperor Elrood; an eight-year-old slave Duncan Idaho seeks to escape his cruel masters; and a young man named Leto Atreides begins a fateful journey. These unlikely souls are drawn together first as renegades and then as something more, as they discover their true fate -- to change the very shape of history!
Price: $4.99
Buy It Digitally: Dune - House Atreides #1

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.