With 2024 marking the fortieth anniversary of David Lynch’s Dune movie, we’re looking back at collectibles that accompanied its release. 1984 had been declared “The Year of Dune” by the film’s marketing department. Some companies were eager to cash-in on the void left in the sci-fi market, with the end of the original Star Wars trilogy, and numerous Dune related books were published, mostly aimed at children.
1984 – The Year of Dune
Sadly Lynch’s adaptation of Dune was not the success hoped for. However, even if it had been a blockbuster, the desire to promote Dune to kids seems somewhat odd, especially with some of the artwork choices used in the books – as we shall see!
Dune Activity and Coloring Books
Perhaps the most infamous of the Dune books from 1984 is the Coloring Book by Grosset & Dunlap, which includes such pages as “I will burn away the sickness” and “Duke Leto and Piter die”. Nothing like asking kids to color in a few corpses!
The “Activity Book”, “Coloring and Activity Book”, and “Puzzles, Games, Mazes, Activities” added more “fun”, with spot-the-difference, word-search, dot-to-dot, and similar puzzles to the mix.
The “Cut-Out Activity Book” allowed you to build models of the Atreides ornithopter, the Emperor’s ship, a sandworm army, and of course everyone’s favorite addition to the Dune-lore by Lynch – the Weirding Module!
Complete scans of 4 of these books are available on the DuneInfo Facebook page:
There was also a “Pop-Up Panorama Book” featuring four colorful 3D scenes with punch-out characters and vehicles, enabling youngsters re-enact the most thrilling scenes! It can be tricky to track down a copy of this book that has the punch-out figures and vehicles still intact on the page.
Scans of most of the pop-up book artwork are available on the DuneInfo Facebook page.
The Dune Storybook
This 64-page book (based on Lynch’s script, which in turn was based on Herbert’s novel) contains color photos, including many from scenes cut from the final film.
The book was also published in Japanese, German (as “Dune Der Wüstenplanet”), and Brazilian Portuguese (as “A história de Dune“).
Scans of the entire English version are available on the DuneInfo Facebook page.
The Making of Dune
Written by veteran journalist Ed Naha, this behind-the-scenes book about the making of the movie was the book that prompted me to start my Dune fan site around 30 years ago, and so it will always have a special place in my heart. Containing over 100 photos of the characters, sets, special effects and inner workings of Dune, plus interviews with the cast and crew, including David Lynch and Frank Herbert, it provides a wonderful insight into optimism and hopes for the movie, before its mostly under whelming reception by audiences and critics.
Deluxe Talking Storybooks
Kid Stuff Records & Tapes released two books: “Dune Part 1: Battle for the Known Universe” and “Dune Part 2: Attack of the Giant Sandworms”. Each book came with either a cassette or record featuring a read-along narration of the simplified story and “exciting sound effects”!
Official Collectors Edition and Poster Magazine
The Official Collectors Edition was 64 pages and captured “the spirit of this exciting and memorable film. It is packed with stills from the film and interviews with the stars, and takes a look at how the film’s many special effects were created.” The first half of the magazine tells the story of Dune and its many characters, while the second-half focuses on the behind-the-scenes story, and is similar to a cut-down Making of Dune, but with the benefit of full-color artwork and photos.
The UK also had a 16-page magazine that folded out into a massive A2 poster of Paul and Feyd.
Dune Comic Adaptation
In 1985, Marvel Comics published a three-issue comic adaptation of David Lynch’s Dune movie from the previous year. All three issues were later collected and republished in the Marvel Super Special #36, with larger and better-quality paper. The latter does remove the recap pages from issues #2 and #3, so you’ll want to collect the individual comics for those.
As well as the English collection, the comic was also translated into French, Spanish, Dutch (as “Duin”), German (as “Der Wüstenplanet”), and Danish (as, err, “Frank Herbert’s Klit”).
The Art of Dune
Sadly, one book announced by Putnam was never released.The Art of Dune was described as follows:
This handsome, high-quality trade paperback celebrates the spectacular achievement of the Dune film, with over 100 illustrations – including production sketches and paintings, costume designs, instruction drawings, matte, paintings, storyboards and stills, and the complete Dune screenplay. This collector’s edition is a souvenir volume of the movie no one will want to miss.
The 160-page trade paperback was due for release in December 1984, but it was cancelled before release.
The cover of this book inspired the covers of both the The Filming of a Masterpiece booklet in the U.K. “Dune Special Edition” DVD and the book in the Limited Edition Arrow Blu-ray release of Dune.
Note: The biography of Frank Herbert, The Dreamer of Dune, incorrectly states that The Art of Dune book was released.