Dune: House Atreides #8

Dune House Atreides #8

BOOM! Studios 2021

Written by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Illustrated by Dev Pramanik & Mariano Taibo

Coloured by Alex Guimarães

Lettered by Ed Dukeshire

Duncan Idaho has a bad feeling about the upcoming celebration at Castle Atreides, but will anyone listen to the young boy?

* And how is it connected to Leto Atreides meeting his destiny?

* Meanwhile, Baron Harkonnen will have to contend with his own destiny and the consequences of his retaliation against Reverend Mother Mohiam.

One of the things that I love about this series is that it reads more like a novel than a standard comic. There’s a subtle difference between the two styles of writing granted but for me it really manages to draw you into this world, the writing that it is, in ways that just feel so much stronger than a comic normally does. Trust me I read and write about them way too much not to know what I’m talking about here. The way that this is written should be award winning to say the least. I love being drawn into to a story so fully that after I read a page or a panel I have to go back and look at the visuals it’s so interesting to me that I don’t see them as fully when I’m reading here.

I love how this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. I also love the fact that gut instinct is able to be portrayed in these pages so that this fleshes out one young man even further than you expect it to. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story, drawing the reader further and further in we get lost in this universe.

I am very much appreciative of the way that this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, evolve and strengthen depending on the avenues that open up or simply the ones that are explored. The layers contain that gut instinct I mentioned earlier along with some stellar characterisation and some solid twists int he story and whether they impact the main arc or simply swirl around it they do wonders in adding extra depth and complexity to the story. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors are a pure joy to see. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of detail work is extraordinary. The creativity and imagination on display throughout is gorgeous. The way backgrounds are utilised makes me happy and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered as well. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a skilled eye in how colour can work and maximise the affect of what we see.

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I’ve said it before but if this were my introduction to the Dune franchise I might have been more receptive to the novels and the film as this series paints such a bright, vivid and dynamic universe inhabited by the sketchiest characters ever created that hold our fascination long after putting the book down.