Laika Color

After reading the rest of McCloud’s book, I felt like I could approach Laika with much more expertise… at least I could read through it assuming I had some insider knowledge. I enjoyed McCloud’s discussion of color in comics, especially how technology and commerce have affected color use through history. Perhaps because this was the first graphic novel we read in color, I was amazed at how it could change the appearance of the story. On a superficial level, I think more people would be interested in a color graphic novel if they were simply flipping through it at the bookstore. The pictures are eye-catching and it was obvious how much work Nick Abadzis put into it, (but I wouldn’t have known the true extent of Abadzis’s work if not for the presentation in class showing his creative process). Abadzis also had to convince a publisher to print this in color, which seems to indicate he truly believed in the importance of the story, and the color in telling the story.

My favorite part of Laika was the three page series from 113 to 115 in which Abadzis steps back from narrating chronological events to deliver a moral of the story. An author could do this through a few special paragraphs or a small chapter, and a filmmaker by showing several individual characters as an omniscient narrator speaks, but the graphic novel contains a wonderful style of performing the same task. I found myself flipping back and forth between these pages, simply rereading them and letting their full meaning sink in. McCloud talked about how comics could subvert the order of time or display the progression of time in any number of ways. This series of panels seems to stand still, stopping at single moments in the world so the reader can look in and see how the moral applies. “But, once you understand that nothing lasts… everything’s alright.” Pictures show several individual characters with concerned expressions, poignant because the expressions are similar even though the characters are facing different life challenges. Abadzis has created a beautiful moment through these three pages, where he uses his own voice as narrator to bring the struggles of the characters together. Time stands still for these three pages, then thrusts abruptly back into the specific time of “Saturday October 5^th, 1957.”

The coloration of the book seemed to make it more complex in some parts, but more juvenile in others. Maybe Laika seemed juvenile in some parts because of the picture of the cute puppy on the cover. Most novels in our class seem to carry a more desperate human story, while this one is overshadowed because it’s based around a dog. One of my friends saw the cover of Laika and thought I was reading a glorified picture book. Perhaps my friend is a book snob who does not respect the graphic novel, but it is also interesting that the book struck her in this way at first. Returning to the subject of color, the book seems juvenile in the cheerful panels (though there are few) simply because of the pretty pictures, to put it in a juvenile way. For example, page 36 includes a series of a little girl taking a dog for a walk and Kudryavka skipping through the air looking for his owner. Drawn in color, this seems simply a playful story. As I write this I realize I have the bias McCloud discussed, and maybe I don’t see small pictorial representations as high or serious art form. In fact the simplicity of some pictures, and the fact that they center on a cute puppy, forms the powerful juxtaposition of serious subject matter with beautifully colored cartoon images. The story is indeed about a cute puppy- one who is intentionally trained and cared for so that he can be left to die in space. The starkness of the storyline lies in contrast to the attractive panels telling the story.

Pages 143 contains, in my opinion, the most interesting use of color in Laika. Even though the book has meticulously colored pages elsewhere, this was interesting to me in its eventual lack of color. Doctor Yazdovsky essentially tells Yelena that Kudryavka will be sent into space to die. The third panel contains the dialogue, “She won’t be coming back. It’s unfortunate. I’m sorry.” In the same panel, Yelena’s face becomes completely white; in fact she has only the outline of a face and no features. The following panels on the page fade to grey. Any inkling of happiness and hope drains from the panels with the color, and the grayness of complete sadness consumes the page. McCloud asked if emotions could be made visible; this page of Laika affirms for me that extreme emotion can be expressed through simple lack of color.