One Coffee Too Many

Dune activity book series, published in 1984 to promote David Lynch’s movie adaptation of the classic Frank Herbert novel, produced by Universal Studios.

Somewhere along the line of Dune’s years-long production schedule, a decision was made at Universal to create the kind of kid merchandise that had sold so well for George Lucas, to capitalize on what would doubtlessly be the latest “sci-fi” monster smash.

Later, when new management sent all the pieces scattering across the board in a crazed attempt to sow chaos and doom, no one noticed or cared that some segment of the marketing department was blithely trundling along, turning psychosexual alien faces, psycopathic royalty, and intergalactic narcotics into fun all-ages activity pages.