Although it chronicles the life of a dog, Laika, the new graphic novel from Nick Abadzis, is the most human of stories. Using Russian state archives, interviews, imagination and exceptionally nuanced art, the British comics creator has fashioned a poignant and accurate portrait of the lives Laika touched in the three years leading up to Sputnik II’s launch. His characters—including the dog—are as real as the story he’s telling: animated with complex personalities, flaws, humor and emotion.

The plot follows four characters: Sputnik II’s Chief Designer and former gulag prisoner, Korolev; the dog’s conflicted caretaker, Yelena Dubrovsky; the leading scientist behind the Soviet animals-in-space program, Oleg Gazenko; and of course, the infamous Russian dog himself. Instead of simply following the dog’s life, however, and how he came to be in the Russian space program, Abadzis tells the a tale of how fate shepherded all four toward their one common destiny. But Fates aren’t always happy, and the characters must endure a genuinely scary, tense, occasionally funny and always compelling journey that culminates on October 4, 1957, with the launch of the legend-

ary satellite.

Because of the limits graphic novels put on dialogue, Abadzis uses his intricate drawings to depict the emotions of his characters via countless facial expressions. He also has exceptional skill to convey both fear and hope through expert shading and color schemes. Even at its darkest, however, Laika beautifully illuminates the all-too-unknown life of its eponymous dog, the people who surrounded him and his eventual demise. (Jason Singer)