Comic Book / Laika

I feel it running in my veins
Struggling with breathing, suffocates my brain
And there's no air in gravity's erase
I am the runaway dog, they sent me into space...

Laika is a 2007 graphic novel by Nick Abadzis.

It is a fictionalized account of the life and death of Laika, the Russian dog who was the first living creature to orbit Earth in space, a major achievement for the Soviet Union in The Space Race. Her story is told from the perspectives of the many people who knew her: a girl named Liliana who was her first owner, the dogcatchers who caught her on the streets, Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, space scientist Oleg Gazenko, and her caretaker, Yelena Dubrovsky.

No relation to the stop-motion animation studio, Laika (although it was named after the dog).

See also Primordial, another comic book that features Laika, but with more thriller and sci-fi elements.

This book is based on a historical event, so all spoilers are unmarked.

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This graphic novel contains examples of:

• Adapted Out: In real life, Albina had a litter of puppies when Sputnik 2 was being built, and it has been suggested that this is why Laika was chosen instead of her to board the satellite. They are not present in this book.
• Arc Words:
  • "I am a man of destiny," Korolev's Survival Mantra after getting out of the gulags.
  • "It was only a dog," referring to the fact that humans don't value dogs as much as they do their fellow man.
  • "Good dog. You can trust me. Don't worry."
• Bearer of Bad News: Korolev breaks the news to the OKB-1 scientists that Sputnik 2 and Laika, once launched, will never return to Earth.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Kudryavka's first owner, Tatiana, is a kind and pretty woman who adores animals and is a loving mother. Her cousin Katya has a wrinkled and withered face, and her husband is a big, fat man with squinty eyes; both are Abusive Parents to their son Mikhail.
• Big "NO!": Liliana's reaction when her mother tells her that Kudryavka ran away while Mikhail was walking her.
  Liliana: Nooooo! Stupid, mean boy! She loved him!
• Bread of Survival: During the opening pages, Korolev is slogging through the snow in a heavy winter, trying to find shelter and food. He hears the barking of a dog, which leads him to a loaf of warm bread sitting in the snow. He's so astonished that he wonders if it's a joke, but just beyond it is a warm shelter.
• Broken Pedestal: Yelena believes her superior, Korolev, is kind at first, and is moved by his statement that the Soviets are proud of their space dogs and their "big Russian hearts." Later, after a rocket crash that killed two of the dogs, Gazenko bluntly tells her that Korolev will stop at nothing to achieve his goals and does not prioritize the safety of humans, let alone "dumb mutts."
• The Chain of Harm: Mikhail is a rude, unpleasant bully with a short temper, but a few glimpses into his life at home make it clear that his parents' harsh treatment of him is a big reason why.
  Mikhail: NOBODY LOVES ME! WHY SHOULD I LOVE THE DOG?!
• Cool Old Guy: Viktor is an old cheese seller who is fond of stray dogs and feeds them scraps when they come up to his stall.
• Cradle-to-Grave Character: The story follows Kudryavka as a puppy living in two different homes, as an adult dog roaming the streets of Moscow, as a space dog being prepared for the launch of Sputnik 2, and the last few hours of her life in which she experiences space flight.
• Didn't Think This Through: Mikhail's mother forces him to take care of Kudryavka the dog, in hopes that he will learn some responsibility and behave better. Instead, he is just angry that her presence gives him more chores to do like feeding and walking her, especially since he never wanted her in the first place. He gets rid of her by throwing her over a bridge, and lies to his parents that she ran away when he took her for a walk.
• Does Not Like Spam: Mukha will eat anything except her gel space food. This works in her favor, as she is not chosen to continue the Sputnik program because of that, and thus survives. (In real life, some sources say Mukha actually was not chosen because she had slightly crooked paws, which were not considered photogenic.)
• Downer Ending: The Russian scientists successfully launch Sputnik 2 with Laika in it, but she dies a painful death in less than four hours from overheating in the capsule. Yelena, her primary caretaker, is heartbroken and quits the space program. Still, Laika lives on in the memories of those who loved her, including Liliana the little girl who was her first owner. As the author's notes reveal, even the scientific value of Sputnik 2 was minimal, meaning Laika's death could have been prevented if Khrushchev had not insisted on Sputnik 2 being finished in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution.
  Oleg Gazenko, in 1998: Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Tatiana suggests to her cousin Katya that they give Mikhail a puppy to look after, and that Kudryavka's sweetness might teach him to be more caring. Katya grabs the basket and aggressively screams at her son that it's now his job to take care of the dog.
• Drowning Unwanted Pets: When Tatiana's dog has seven puppies and she's trying to find homes for them, multiple people suggest throwing them in the river.
• Everyone Has Standards: While the people don't want stray dogs running around, everyone is disgusted with Georgi when he actually kills a stray dog in a violent manner by stomping on her head. The old woman who asked him to help catch the dogs rebukes him for making a public spectacle and tells him to never show his face in the market again, and the other dogcatchers angrily point that their job is to catch the dogs, not kill them.
• Foreign Cuss Word: As Mikhail's friends leave him and go off to play somewhere else because he exploded at them, they mutter, "Zhopa!" (ass) and "Sobakin sin!" (son of a dog).
• Greater-Scope Villain: Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, is the one who insists that the scientists have to build and launch Sputnik 2 in less than a month, with Laika aboard, in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. The tight deadline means that they can't build a satellite that will be able to re-enter the atmosphere safely and allow Laika to survive.
• Groin Attack: Liliana kicks Mikhail in the crotch when he bullies her and pulls her hair.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: When Kudryavka runs up to Mikhail while he's playing soccer with his friends, he trips over the ball and his friends laugh at him. His immediate reaction is to get enraged, scream at them and try to fight them. They walk away, and tell him they're not going to play with him anymore if he keeps acting like that.
• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • A single kind act isn't always enough to change a mean person, and can backfire. Tatiana gives Kudryavka as a puppy to her cousin's son Mikhail hoping he will learn some responsibility, but he doesn't care about the dog and only views her as a nuisance, and eventually throws her off a bridge.
  • When the higher-ups at your job do immoral or cruel things, for whatever reason, there's most likely nothing you can really do about it. Gazenko and Yelena are devastated when they find out Laika is to die in space aboard Sputnik 2, but nobody can overrule the order since it came from the leader of the Soviet Union himself.
• A Hero Is Born: The second chapter begins with Kudryavka and her littermates being born. Her owner's landlady is not happy, as she doesn't want more dogs in the house.
• I Have Many Names: Laika has three names throughout her life. Her first owner (and later, Yelena) call her Kudryavka ("curly") for her curly tail, the dogcatchers call her Zhuchka ("little bug"), and the space scientists call her Laika ("barker"). The American press calls her "Muttnik."
• Jerkass:
  • Tatiana's landlady, who immediately demands that she get rid of the puppies that her dog gave birth to because "[she] won't have mongrels in this house!"
  • Mikhail, a mean kid with a short fuse who bullies his cousin Liliana, explodes at his friends, and rejects Kudryavka when she tries to show affection to him. It runs in the family—both of his parents are short-tempered and his father is physically abusive.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Mikhail's mother scolds him for never showing any interest in Kudryavka the puppy for weeks. Mikhail rightfully points out that he never asked for her in the first place. It probably doesn't help that his introduction to Kudryavka was basically his mother screaming in his face that the dog was now his responsibility and that she would starve if he didn't feed her.
• Missed Him by That Much: Liliana and her mother happen to be in the public market on the same day and time that Kudryavka is caught by dogcatchers and delivered to the Soviet space program, and at one point they are close enough that Liliana can hear Kudryavka howling. Sadly, they never encounter each other again.
• Multiple Endings: For the 25th anniversary of Big Planet Comics, Nick Abadzis was asked to draw a series of alternate endings for the book. He obliged.
  • Ending 1◊: Korolev fools everyone, including Khrushchev and the KGB, into thinking Laika went to space inside Sputnik 2, when she is actually ejected from the satellite 10,000 feet into the air and parachutes safely down to Earth to reunite with Yelena.
  • Ending 2◊: Laika gets sick and Albina boards Sputnik 2 in her place. She survives a full seven days and is painlessly euthanized by the poisoned food in the capsule, as the scientists intended. The Russians win the space race, and Alexei Leonov's lunar lander is named in Albina's honor.
  • Ending 3◊: While in Sputnik 2, Laika encounters a strange alien monolith, and is granted intelligence and a bigger head.
  • Ending 4◊: Sputnik 2 explodes, and the cosmic rays change Laika into a super-powered dog known as Cosmodog. She returns to Earth, intent on reuniting with Yelena, and terrifies the scientists.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: The scientists who have worked closely with Laika, and especially Yelena, don't want to put her in Sputnik 2, knowing it will never return to Earth and she will die in there. Still, they cannot disobey direct orders from the Soviet government.
• No Body Left Behind: On April 14, 1958, five months after launch, Sputnik 2 burns up and disintegrates in space, taking Laika's body with it.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Georgi the novice dogcatcher seems like a bumbler at first, being outsmarted by Kudryavka and Gertruda. Then he captures Kudryavka and kills Gertruda by stomping on her head in a fit of rage.
• Old Dog: Gertruda is a smart, scruffy old stray dog who befriends Kudryavka. She's smart enough to not be tempted by food from those she knows will try to catch her.
• One Degree of Separation: Liliana and her mother, the first owners of Kudryavka, are neighbors with Yelena, who is the dog's caretaker when she becomes part of the Russian space program.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In the most literal sense. After the news comes out that Sputnik 2 won't return from space and Laika will die aboard, Yazdovsky takes her home to play with his children so she can have fun like an ordinary dog for once.
  • Korolev personally arranges for Yelena to be able to stay with Laika up until the moment of Sputnik 2's launch.
• Reality Has No Subtitles: Some of the Russian text in the illustrations is left untranslated. Liliana's drawing of Kudryavka has "щенки!" ("Puppies!") written in the upper right hand corner.
• Recruited from the Gutter: The Soviet space program's dogs, including Laika, are all strays that have been taken off the streets, on the principle that the animals are already used to extreme cold and hunger.
• Snowy Screen of Death: When Laika dies from overheating inside Sputnik 2, the camera feed from the satellite to Earth turns to static.
• Survival Mantra: While walking in the snow and trying to make it to someplace safe and warm, Korolev repeats to himself, "I am a man of destiny. I will not die."
• Trauma Conga Line: As a puppy, Kudryavka is given to a mean boy who doesn't want her and keeps her locked in a closet for weeks. He throws her off a bridge into a river, but she survives and learns to live as a street dog. Her only friend is killed by a dogcatcher, and she is caught and given over to the Soviet space program. She is chosen to board Sputnik 2, but because the project is on such a tight schedule, the scientists cannot design the satellite to be able to return to Earth. Kudryavka/Laika is put into Sputnik 2 and sent into space, and because of a design flaw, she dies of overheating four hours after launch.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A recurring theme throughout the comic is animals being treated as lesser than humans. Street dogs are considered nuisances and Tatiana gets multiple suggestions to drown her puppies instead of find homes for them. Even the dogs at OKB-1, while treated better than common strays, are expendable and considered acceptable sacrifices to further the cause of research in space exploration. Nobody but Yelena is really upset when Rzyhaya and Dzyhoyna die in what is implied to be a rocket malfunction.
  Gazenko: Safety is the biggest issue. That's what our work here and at OKB-1 is all about. But that's why we're sending up dogs, not people.
• Wham Line:
  Gazenko: And how will the satellite [Sputnik] return to Earth?
  Korolev: It won't.
• Winter of Starvation: In the opening pages, Korolev has left the gulag and is wandering through the snow, trying to make it to Magadan on foot while sick, cold and hungry. A truck driver who gives him a ride advises him to eat soon and find shelter, or he won't make it.