PDF Ebook Laika, by Nick Abadzis

PDF Ebook Laika, by Nick Abadzis

If you are fond of this sort of book, simply take it immediately. You will certainly be able to offer more information to other individuals. You might additionally find brand-new things to do for your day-to-day activity. When they are all offered, you could produce new atmosphere of the life future. This is some parts of the Laika, By Nick Abadzis that you can take. And when you actually require a book to read, choose this publication as excellent recommendation.

Laika, by Nick Abadzis

PDF Ebook Laika, by Nick Abadzis

Do you require a help to boost your life quality? Well, at first, we will ask you concerning your favourite routine. Do you like analysis? Checking out can be a different method to improve the quality of life. Even this problem will certainly rely on the book that you review you could begin loving reading by some particular publications. As well as to understand just what we suggest right here, we will certainly reveal you the very best book to review today.

This publication is readily available in soft duplicate documents that can be possessed by you. Checking out lovers, many people have the reading activity in there early morning day. It is as the way to begin the day. At some point, in their midday, they will also enjoy reading the magazine. Have you started to love reviewing the book? Laika, By Nick Abadzis as one of referred publications can be your choice to spend your time or spare time specifically. You will not need to have various other useless activities to open up or make use of the time.

This is not only concerning the perfections that we will certainly offer. This is also about just what things that you can worry about to earn much better concept. When you have various ideas with this publication, this is your time to fulfil the perceptions by checking out all web content of the book. Laika, By Nick Abadzis is also one of the windows to get to and also open up the globe. Reading this publication could help you to discover new globe that you could not discover it previously.

Consequently, you could take Laika, By Nick Abadzis as one of your analysis products today. Also you still have the various other publication; you could develop your determination to actually get this significant publication. It will constantly give advantages from some sides. Reading this sort of publication additionally will assist you to have even more experiences that others have not.

Amazon.com Review

Laika was the abandoned puppy destined to become Earth's first space traveler. This is her journey. Nick Abadzis masterfully blends fiction and fact in the intertwined stories of three compelling lives. Along with Laika, there is Korolev, once a political prisoner, now a driven engineer at the top of the Soviet space program, and Yelena, the lab technician responsible for Laika's health and life. This intense triangle is rendered with the pitch-perfect emotionality of classics like Because of Winn Dixie, Shiloh, and Old Yeller. Abadzis gives life to a pivotal moment in modern history, casting light on the hidden moments of deep humanity behind history. Laika's story will speak straight to your heart. Questions for Nick Abadzis Jeff VanderMeer for Amazon.com: What inspired you to pick this particular topic for a graphic novel? And why, for example, a graphic novel as opposed to a strictly written account? Abadzis: I'd known it was a good story since I was about six years old. It had always been at the back of my mind as a story to tell. In 2002, new information came to light about the Sputnik II mission and specifically Laika's death. That was the spark, although back then I envisaged something much shorter. It, uh, grew. Why a graphic novel? Well, comics are my language. It's the medium that I'm most familiar and comfortable...so it was first choice. Amazon.com: What most surprised you while researching Laika? Abadzis: There were a few things. I had no idea there were so few Soviet engineers and scientists involved in the nascent space program--not to trivialize their incredible achievement but, in many senses, they just winged it, borne along in great part by Korolev's force of will and political maneuvering. Also it was interesting to find out how much the Soviet scientists cared for their cosmodogs. Events conspired to make Laika a sacrificial passenger on board Sputnik II, but they really did honor their canine cosmonauts. There's even a statue of Laika in Moscow. Perhaps this book will go some small way to re-establishing her position in history: whatever the circumstances, and whether you agree with what they did or not, she was the first earthling in orbit around this planet. Amazon.com: Was there anything that didn't make it into the graphic novel because it just didn't fit? Abadzis: There was quite a bit, actually. I could have done with another hundred pages. But I'd taken a bit of time to write and thumbnail it (which I do at the same time) and when that stage was finished, the publisher and I realized that the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launches was fast approaching. When I first pitched the idea to Mark Siegel at First Second, neither of us realized that it was so close. It felt like we needed to be a part of that, so I drew it extremely fast--two hundred pages in a little over eight months. It's an understatement to say that it was extremely hard work. What got left out was a longer explication of Laika's origins; the scenes with Mikhail, her first owner were much longer.... Originally, I did have an idea of doing three books: Laika would be the first, Gagarin the second, and a full-on comic strip biography of Korolev [the driven engineer on the project] would be the final part that would bind together events seen in the first two. Maybe one day. Certainly, elements of Korolev's life that I felt were important to the story made it into the final version of the book. Amazon.com: Did you worry about the sentimentality inherent in the situation? How did that affect your decisions in creating the graphic novel? Abadzis: I suppose it would have been easy to make it another cutesy, twee, and overly saccharine dead-dog story but that wouldn't have been true either to my taste or to the socio-political system and culture I was attempting to portray. Laika--the real Laika--was a cute dog, as photographs attest. There's no getting away from it, and there's plenty of evidence to suggest her owners thought so, too. I didn't want to anthropomorphize her, at least not to the extent that she was spouting speech/thought balloons like, say Tintin's Snowy (which works just fine for those books). Having made that decision--which I didn't really feel was an option, in any case--I knew that to really do it justice, I'd have to do a lot of research. The sentiment of the story, such as it is, would take care of itself and be implicit in certain character's actions or words (or not, as the case may be).... All that said, it'd be disingenuous to suggest that, in dealing with a true story that involves dogs and their owners (even if they happen to be scientists in a Soviet cosmodog program), there wouldn't be a bit of emotion. There's plenty (and I hope the reader feels it). But there's also the harsh reality of the time, the place and the confluence of events that put Laika into space. Amazon.com: What are you currently working on? Abadzis: I'm currently working on a new graphic novel for older readers called Skin Trouble, which is also for First Second. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what that's all about, suffice to say it'll be an ensemble piece, character-wise. I've also got a children's graphic novel in the works. Can't say anything about that at all, but I'm looking forward to drawing it.

Read more

From Booklist

Classic dog-story themes such as loyalty serve as a backdrop for this fictionalized account of Laika, the first living creature launched into outer space. A charming and scruffy little dog, Laika survives an uncaring master and life as a stray before becoming part of the Russian space program circa 1956, just as the Soviet Union had achieved a huge victory over American competition. With a stilted romanticism that doesn't fit the story's tone, Laika is established as "a very special dog," but soon the focus of the complex tale turns away from the dog to Yelena Dubrovsky, the trainer responsible for preparing Laika and the other dogs for the rigors of testing. Through Dubrovsky, the progress of the program and the incredible pressure on the scientists are given effective form. The rough-hewn art, similar to the Joann Sfar's work on the Dungeon books, makes the characters appear constantly nervous and uncertain, lending immediacy to the all-pervasive atmosphere of strict formality and enforced patriotism. An extensive bibliography of sources is appended. Karp, Jesse

Read more

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 208 pages

Publisher: First Second; First Edition edition (September 4, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1596431016

ISBN-13: 978-1596431010

Product Dimensions:

6.1 x 0.5 x 8.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.5 out of 5 stars

51 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#116,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Beautiful and tragic. I don't know if I have the heart to read this book again.Nick Abadzis’ LAIKA is a fictionalized account of the short life and sad death of Laika, the Soviet space dog. Be forewarned: it’s a three-handkerchief, bucket-of-tears kind of novel.Laika’s story is one of loyalty and trust repaid with callous abandonment and deception, and the injustice of this tale resonates deeply. “Do not worry,” Laika is told, again and again. “Trust me.” Meanwhile, death waits for her, implacable.Reading Abadzis’ graphic novel, I found myself saying “It’s not fair! It’s just not fair!” A very childlike reaction, one that I’m usually too jaded, or too adult, to voice so vehemently.But the pointless suffering of an innocent animal tends to trigger that kind of vehemence. We want to the world to be less cruel, and when we see a devoted animal suffering and dying precisely because she’s so devoted, then the rationalizations we’re usually able to make as adults don’t work so well anymore.Abadzis isn’t the first artist to engage with Laika’s tragic history. One of my favorite films is Lasse Hallstrom’s My Life as a Dog, available from the Criterion Collection. It’s the story of Ingemar, a young Swedish boy growing up in the fifties and struggling with feelings of abandonment and betrayal. Ingemar’s father is gone, his mother is desperately ill, and no one wants to tell him that his dog isn’t coming back. Sent away to live with relatives, Ingemar sits and looks at the stars and thinks of Laika, who got sent into space without any food, left there to die. “You have to compare,” he tells himself. “You always have to compare.” His grief at being sent away is sustainable, if only because he identifies with Laika, who had it so much worse.

Don't let the art style of this graphic novel fool you, it is defiantly an adult novel, with the politics of the Cold War Space Race at the front. Nick Abadzis has mixed what is unknown about Laika and what is known about her into a story that is very believable. This graphic novel conveys the truth accurately, and holds no punches back. Has a History lover I love this book. I applaud Nick for keeping the record straight. He could have very easily morphed the truth about Laika into a happy ending story. Nick opted to stick the historical truth and for that I applaud him. He got more details right than wrong based on what I know about Laika and the Sputnik II program. Dog lovers beware, this book will leave you in tears, Reading about Laika in historical documents made me cry. If you are looking to memorialize Laika and share her story, then this book is for you. Putting emotion into history is the best way to share it, and this book is a great stepping stone to learning about Laika. If you are a dog lover looking for a tear jerker, this book I guarantee you will leave you in tears.

I was already well aware of the 'official' story of the Soviet space dog Laika (aboard Sputnik 2) but this terrific and poignant graphic novel by Nick Abadzis fills in the missing pieces of Laika's story with skillfully (and seamlessly) interwoven fact and fiction (not too unlike James Cameron's "Titanic" in that regard). Real characters like rocket designer Sergei Korolev and fictional characters such as Laika's various previous owners are well integrated. Laika and the various other dogs in the Soviet training program have their simple, primal (touching) thoughts conveyed to the reader via thought captions which really 'feel' how a dog would/should think. The details of the period (late 1950s Soviet Union) are very authentic, and the characters are all part of a lovely (and heartbreaking) tapestry of Laika's life. The story moved me very deeply.

A wonderfully written and drawn story, that is mostly factual. Being an animal love, I couldn't stop thinking about Laika and feeling terribly emotional after finishing the book (a couple of months ago), and continue to feel sad even till today :'(

This tender graphic novel deals with the birth of spaceflight from the point of view of Laika, the first dog in space, who went aboard the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2, in late 1957, in a flight that was never meant to return to Earth. As the story is told here, after the success of the first Sputnik in October 1957, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev wanted to capitalize on the propaganda value of the world's first satellite and pushed for a new launching for the anniversary of the Russian revolution, just a month later, this time bringing into orbit for the first time a living being into space. There was little time for preparing a proper satellite, so a non retrievable rocket was launched. Thus, the moral of this tale is that a dog's life was sacrificed for the honor of the nation (there was little scientific value in Sputnik 2). The story here has three protagonists: Laika, the female stray dog turn sacrificial space pioneer (a moving, presumably invented story about her troubled, wandering life as an unwanted dog before being caught for the Soviet space program is presented here in the first chapters), Korolev, the driven and ambitious chief designer and a former gulag inmate during Stalin's time, and the fictional Yelena, the female lab technician in charge of Laika's health who, despite the advice of her superiors, comes to care for her personally. With drawings that are attractive without being flashy, this is a very entertaining book. It is also quite poignant, without being overtly sentimental.

This book is incredibly well written and illustrated. It's fantastic. But as a dog lover, it destroyed me. I had planned to take my time looking at the different illustrations closely and processing the story, but the illustrations of Laika's facial expressions were heartbreaking. It was a great book, but it was so hard to read.

Laika, by Nick Abadzis PDF
Laika, by Nick Abadzis EPub
Laika, by Nick Abadzis Doc
Laika, by Nick Abadzis iBooks
Laika, by Nick Abadzis rtf
Laika, by Nick Abadzis Mobipocket
Laika, by Nick Abadzis Kindle

Laika, by Nick Abadzis PDF

Laika, by Nick Abadzis PDF

Laika, by Nick Abadzis PDF

Laika, by Nick Abadzis PDF