Review: Laika
Dec. 15th, 2007 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerLaika, Nick Abadzis
Graphic novel, 208pp, £10.99.
Most people know the story of Laika and her one-way trip to become the first living creature in orbit. But how much of her story do we really know? Given that Laika - or Kudryavka ('little curly') as she was known to her handlers - was found as a stray of around three years age, her life before she fell into the hands of the Soviet space programme can only be a matter of conjecture. It is to Nick Abadzis's credit that he comes up with a believable backstory for Laika that rounds her our as a character as well as making for a fuller narrative than just the story of her training and flight would have. Much of the story is told though from the perspective of those who handle the future space dog, notable Yelena, the lab technician whose superiors respect her ability to work with animals whilst worrying about her growing empathy with them. And behind everything is Sergei Korolev, mastermind of the Soviet space programme, a hero to some and a driven monster to others. Abadzis makes clear the parallels between Laika and Korolev; both seeming to face anonymous, abandoned death - Laika on the steets of Moscow, Korolev in the Gulag - then both plucked into lives that combine privilege and pressure, and which will eventually kill both of them. (Abadzis doesn't refer to Korolev's death during surgery complicated by illness induced by stress and prison privations, but many readers will be aware of it).
Abadzis has clearly done his research: the technology of the R-7 booster is well depicted, and he even claims to have tried to draw the Moon's phases to be as accurate as possible. The art is in a clean, simple style reminiscent of Tintin, but with stunning use of colour; space is not cold and remote, but rich, warm and inviting. I suspect he's also a dog lover, and the strongest feeling this book evoked in me was a sense of how we often don't deserve the simple and unquestioning affection they give us. Highly recommended.
Graphic novel, 208pp, £10.99.
Most people know the story of Laika and her one-way trip to become the first living creature in orbit. But how much of her story do we really know? Given that Laika - or Kudryavka ('little curly') as she was known to her handlers - was found as a stray of around three years age, her life before she fell into the hands of the Soviet space programme can only be a matter of conjecture. It is to Nick Abadzis's credit that he comes up with a believable backstory for Laika that rounds her our as a character as well as making for a fuller narrative than just the story of her training and flight would have. Much of the story is told though from the perspective of those who handle the future space dog, notable Yelena, the lab technician whose superiors respect her ability to work with animals whilst worrying about her growing empathy with them. And behind everything is Sergei Korolev, mastermind of the Soviet space programme, a hero to some and a driven monster to others. Abadzis makes clear the parallels between Laika and Korolev; both seeming to face anonymous, abandoned death - Laika on the steets of Moscow, Korolev in the Gulag - then both plucked into lives that combine privilege and pressure, and which will eventually kill both of them. (Abadzis doesn't refer to Korolev's death during surgery complicated by illness induced by stress and prison privations, but many readers will be aware of it).
Abadzis has clearly done his research: the technology of the R-7 booster is well depicted, and he even claims to have tried to draw the Moon's phases to be as accurate as possible. The art is in a clean, simple style reminiscent of Tintin, but with stunning use of colour; space is not cold and remote, but rich, warm and inviting. I suspect he's also a dog lover, and the strongest feeling this book evoked in me was a sense of how we often don't deserve the simple and unquestioning affection they give us. Highly recommended.
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Date: 2007-12-15 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-16 09:13 am (UTC)UM, did any parcels come for me yet? (Or non-delivery cards??)
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Date: 2007-12-16 09:26 am (UTC)Amazon parcel arrived at some ungodly hour yesterday (i.e. before 10).
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Date: 2007-12-18 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-18 04:38 pm (UTC)