John Coulthart at his blog {feuilleton} has discovered an absolutely marvelous find that is currently on eBay. There is an auction that ends in a few days with the intriguing title “Alejandro Jodorowsky’s DUNE Script EARLY DRAFT? Giger ILLUSTRATED Original Art.”

Yes, that’s right. It appears to be a full script for Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s Dune, however, “It is NOT the ‘phone book size’ script as seen in the documentary ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune,’ but appears to be an earlier/shorter version. There are about 300 pages in total, including illustrations.” At present there have been 15 bids on the script, and the price is at $710.

For those who don’t know, in the 1970s there was a concerted effort to bring to the screen an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi mega-bestseller Dune. In 1984, of course, an adaptation by David Lynch was released; while it’s a remarkable piece of work, that version is widely seen as a failure. In 2013 Frank Pavich’s movie Jodorowsky’s Dune documented the abortive first attempt to make the movie.

Here’s the cover of the script, as well as the title page:
 

 

 
Despite the title of the auction, the description indicates that the images “do NOT appear to be by Jean Giraud/Moebius, or Giger, but by an unknown artist.” Certainly at a glance they seem completely dissimilar from all of Giger‘s known output; I am a little less certain in the case of Moebius, but probably more dissimilar than similar. Coulthart convincingly suggests that the drawings are by Jodorowsky himself (interestingly, the eBay seller does not venture a guess), pointing to his 1967 comic Fabulas Panicas. Here’s Coulthart:
 

No artist is credited but the naive style rules out both Moebius and HR Giger (who arrived late to the project in any case). Best bet is either Jodorowsky himself—in 1967 he was writing and illustrating a comic strip, Fabulas Panicas—or Jodorowsky’s colleague from the Panic Movement days, Roland Topor. In the early 70s Topor was working with René Laloux on the animated SF film Fantastic Planet.

Many of the conceptions differ radically from the more graceful designs that Moebius produced later on. Also of note are details such as the anal entrance to the Emperor’s throne room, a Harkonnen orgy and an insemination scene viewed from inside Jessica’s vagina. By the time Giger joined the production team the instruction was not to create anything too erotic or adult since the film needed to reach a large audience.

 
I really adore these pictures. Several of the images are crazy NSFW but no less delightful for that. For those who would like to see larger versions of the images, there is a Photobucket gallery associated with the auction.
 
Here’s a very interesting excerpt from the script, as a little appetizer for what is to follow:

 

Update: Dangerous Minds reached out to Frank Pavich, director of Jodorowsky’s Dune and Syd Garon, graphic designer on the film, for their comment as to these curious images. Pavich hasn’t ever seen the images before and is certain they did not emanate from Jodorowsky’s hand: “I have no clue where this stuff originated from. I can tell that they’re not drawn by Jodo himself, that’s for sure. He has a very specific drawing style.” Garon pointed out that the title card image is “very similar to an early one used by the film,” meaning this image, which Pavich stated is the handiwork of Michel Landy:
 

 
Garon also referenced the picture of the “Emperor of the Galaxy” because “it looks like Dali but these must have been drawn before Mobius came on board. … The hat, hands and necklace seem like something from the mind of Jodo.”

DM will keep you updated as news on these curious images comes in.

Update 2: Garon contacted us yesterday with the news of Jodorowsky’s tweet, as reader Shade Rupe also informed us in comments. A Twitter user named @sstofflet asked Jodorowsky about the script and images, and his response was: “Es un falso guión con un dibujo idiota” (It is a fake script with idiotic drawings).
 

.@sstofflet Es un falso guión con un dibujo idiota.

— Alejandro Jodorowsky (@alejodorowsky) March 30, 2015

 
So that settles that. The questions remains, of course, of what these images are. But if I were the eBay user who bid $1,225 for the screenplay and images, as the current selling price of the auction runs, I’d sure as hell want to find out more about these items.

Now, on to the sketches: