Back in June for our Pride Month coverage at Broken Frontier I interviewed a number of creators for the very first time. One of those subjects was Nessie Mooo whose Laika short first started life as a university project. It was hard to avoid being drawn to this comic not simply for its poignant subject matter but for the experimental dimensions of its physical presentation.
Laika traces the story of the titular doomed canine, the first animal to orbit the Earth. The distinct tactile look of the comic is designed to mimic both a gravestone and to represent a series of circular motifs that crop up within the narrative – the Earth, the Moon, the window of the Sputnik spacecraft and so on.
Comprising 16 pages (including front and back covers) Laika gives us an interpretation of the story where the protagonist is depicted in anthropomorphised form. This is a Laika fully aware of their imminent demise; one whose fate lies not in orbit but in a crashed capsule on the Moon. It’s a more defiant Laika whose projected human qualities allow the creator to make a pronounced statement on the injustice of her fate, constantly looking back on the now unreachable Earth with a resigned yet angry sense of acceptance.
Nessie Mooo makes use of irregular page compositions that both emphasise the claustrophobia of Laika’s environment and the vast, incomprehensible enormity of space. It’s a clever narrative juggling act and one that ends on a visual punchline that is bleakly funny and yet, simultaneously, strangely poignant too. Intriguing work from a voice that some of you may be unaware of.
Nessie Mooo (W/A) • Self-published, £12.00
Review by Andy Oliver
