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Laika
Written and Illustrated by Nick Abadzis
First Second Books, 2007. 208 pages.
ISBN 13: 978-1-59643-101-0

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, it may be easy to forget a different 40th anniversary that occurred decades before. That anniversary marked the Russian Revolution, and the Soviet Union decided to commemorate its founding by lobbing the first living creature into space. Her name was Laika – and she was a dog.

America was already in shock after the unexpected launch of the satellite Sputnik in 1957. The launching of Laika into space just one month later seemed to confirm fears of Soviet technical superiority.

Nick Abadzis’ graphic novel Laika imaginatively retells this strange episode of the Space Race. Based upon meticulous research into space agency archives, the story follows the dog Laika from her birth to a difficult life as a stray, and eventually her untimely arrival at a space agency laboratory. Kind, empathetic, and always playful, Laika quickly wins the hearts of her caretaker Comrade Dubrovsky and the entire lab.

But as charming as the cute dog may be, she has been drawn into the center of the Cold War, and becomes a tool of the state. Laika has been given a higher calling. We watch her proceed through rigorous pre-flight testing and, eventually, stare up at the steaming engines of a giant rocket.

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