Laika

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This is the journey of Laika, the abandoned puppy destined to become Earth's first space traveler. With the blending of fact and fiction, this story intertwines three compelling lives. Along with Laika, there is Korolev, a driven engineer at the top of the Soviet space program and Yelena, the lab technician responsible for Laika's health and life.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Dog in Space! submitted by irenzero on May 24, 2008, 11:29am Lika tells the story of the first dog in space, and her life from a spurned puppy to her death as a cosmodog. Lika’s story is paralleled by that of the chief scientist and her handler as they both seek to do their jobs, to prove themselves and make history. The art is slightly rough in a reflection of the time and place, the USSR in the late 1950s, but very effective in giving life to the characters and the times. I would say that in addition to the history, this very effective graphic novel caries an emotional weight that few others can project.

emotional submitted by sandylib123 on July 8, 2011, 10:54am very nice book, realistic, and very sad.

intriguing back story submitted by camelsamba on June 28, 2013, 2:15pm Most people (at least of a certain age, or with basic knowledge of the space race) will know the key points of Laika's story, but the drama comes from the back story that Abadzis creates for her. And while I as reader knew that much of that must be fictionalized, I did wonder how much of the human interaction was based on his research. Was Dubrovsky a real person? If so, what was her interaction with Grezenko really like? I'm not curious enough to do my own research, but rather, those tantalizing details made the story more interesting for me.

This is a great graphic novel visually - it makes very effective use of panels to advance the story. One thing that really bugged me, though, was the way he drew faces - everyone has these lines on their cheeks that struck me as odd. Or am I just envious because I can't draw decent faces?