Frank Herbert's Dune series is one of the all-time great works of science fiction. With a new Dune film from director Denis Villeneuve scheduled to release later this summer, fans are excited. This is not the first film adaptation, but it will hopefully be better than past attempts.
The influence of Dune has rippled throughout science fiction works, inspiring multiple generations of writers and artists. Many novels, movies, and TV shows have addressed the themes highlighted in Herbert's books or evoked similar feelings among fans. The same is also true of comics, as there are some great sci-fi series that the followers of Muad'Dib will find every bit as crucial to their lives as the Spice of Arrakis.
10 Dune: House of Atreides Is A Dune Prequel Comic
This comic seems like this is a good place to start, given that it is so self-evidently relevant. This comic is a prequel story to the original Dune novel, adapting the House of Atrides story written by Brian Herbert (Frank Herbert’s son) and Kevin J. Anderson.
Beloved characters like Leto Atreides and Duncan Idaho are featured among the cast, and the book is beautifully illustrated by Dev Premanik, whose detailed drawings evoke the terror of a sandworm’s attack on Arrakis and the splendor of the Imperial Palace on Kaitain in all of their splendor.
9 X-O Manowar (2017) Is About A War On An Arrakis-Like Planet
X-O Manowar is the flagship hero of Valiant Comics, a time-displaced Visigoth with an alien power armor who learns what it means to be a king and a hero in the modern world.
After his groundbreaking 2012 series came to an end, writer Matt Kindt took up the title in 2017, putting the hero on an alien planet where he became mixed up in the wars between competing species. The nature of war, politics, and leadership are explored here in a way fans of Dune will love.
8 Lazarus Deals With Political Intrigue And A Clash Between Powerful Families
Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s Lazarus is one of the most emotional, intelligent, and intense sci-fi comics around. In fact, even as Rucka was writing it, many of the things he was predicting in the distant future began to come true.
In the future, a handful of rich families have divided the Earth between them, replacing conventional governments. Besides these families, other people exist either as serfs (who are deemed useful to the families) or waste (humans whose lives are deemed worthless). The protagonist, Forever Carlyle, is the Lazarus of House Carlyle, tasked with protecting their economic and political interests. Through genetic engineering, she can heal from any wound, but as she uncovers the secrets of her family’s past, she learns she can’t heal from the pain of her family’s betrayals.
7 The Metabarons Is A Dark Sci-Fi Series About Genetics And Imperialism
Writer Alejandro Jodorowsky is a bit of a legend among comics fans for his dark, sophisticated borderline-surrealist sci-fi stories. Metabarons is one of his greatest masterpieces and was created with artist Juan Gimenez.
The book deals with many of the same themes as Dune, such as imperialism, genetics experiments, and the use of deception as an exercise of political power. In fact, Jodorowsky had been involved in an early attempt to make a film adaptation of Dune, which led him to be inspired to create this epic tale.
6 Megalex Follows Competing Factions Fighting For Control Of A Planet
Megalex is one of Jodorowsky’s shorter comics, and one of his more recent works. It is set on a planet that is almost entirely covered by a single city where genetic breeding programs enforce a strict class structure.
However, there is a group of freedom fighters working to retake the planet, causing a clash of philosophies as organic and magical guerilla insurgents take on a powerful technarchy. Fred Balton’s beautiful art brings this story to life with vivid color in a way unlike anything being produced in American comics at this time.
5 East of West Is A Weird Western Dystopia
Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s East of West is a weird western set in the near future of an alternate Earth with bizarre technology and supernatural forces.
The main character is Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, though he’s not on good terms with the other three. The series explores humanity’s ability to find hope amid hopeless times, but also the way that rivalries and petty animosities keep people divided when they need to work together to survive.
4 Ex Machina Explores New York’s Realpolitik With Superpowers
Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris’s Ex Machina is set in New York in the 2000s. However, this version of New York has a single superhero, Mitchell Hundred, who can speak to machines and who used his powers to stop one of the planes on 9/11, resulting in him later becoming elected the next mayor of New York.
Anyone who loves the way propaganda and backroom deals in Dune leads to personal tragedies and bursts of calamitous violence—and the ways that heroic characters try to prevail over their enemies while being forced to use the same tactics—is bound to love Ex Machina. Also, the way this comic subverts “Chosen One” narratives is akin to the personal journeys of Paul Atreides and his sister Alia.
3 V For Vendetta Questions The Nature Of Power
One of the most harrowing and philosophically significant parts of Dune is when the protagonist Paul Atriedes—living millennia in the future and far removed from current events. V for Vendetta also explores narratives around fascism, power, genocide, and violence, but with a much greater sense of immediacy.
This is one of Alan Moore’s earliest works, made in collaboration with artist David Lloyd in response to the encroaching fascistic trends spawned by Thatcher’s neoliberal policies against workers and minorities. Many of the comic’s predictions began coming true as Moore wrote it.
2 Little Bird Depicts The Violence Of Religious Dogma And Colonialism
Few books to come out in recent years are as harrowing and raw as Darcy van Poelgeest and Ian Bertram’s Little Bird. After a Christofascist government has seized control of North America, the last remaining Native peoples are subjected to a campaign of genocide. The comic “was written on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people,” something van Poelgeest makes clear.
The tragedies and trials presented in Little Bird—and the direct representation of genocide—surpass anything depicted in the Fremen Jihad and the worst crimes of the Harkonnens. This book is a must-read.
1 Saga Is A Sprawling Space Epic About Love In Times Of War
Though it has been on an extended hiatus of late, Saga (written by Brian Vaughan) is one of the most beloved and widely-read comics around. The story is narrated from the perspective of Hazel, a little girl born to parents from warring alien species.
The book follows the family as they live life on the run, hunted by both of their respective governments, as Hazel’s very existence is a threat to their propaganda campaigns. This book will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you think and whoop for joy and never stop being amazed.