Yefgenii Yeremin is orphaned by the Second World War, one of the few children to survive Stalingrad. He grows up with a world of kicks and punches in the casual brutality of an orphanage. There is a way out, but it is slight, only one child from all the orphanages in the area will get the opportunity of going to the academy to learn to fly. He makes it and becomes an ace flying MIGs against the Americans in Korea, but his achievements can never be recognised as officially the Soviets are not there. Exiled to Antarctica he and his wife live a lonely and harsh life, then as the Space Race takes off Russia are in need of an expert expendable pilot to try and land on the moon before the Americans do.
Robin's stark blocky drawings with their muted colours illustrate this bleak sad tale beautifully, echoing the blunt brutality of the life of a brilliant man whose achievements can never be recognised. Not quite as brilliant as Nick Abadzis' Laika but another timely example of recovery of hidden and lost histories, a work that makes you think about our perception of the recent past. The names of great Americans such as Aldrin burn in our consciousness but there must have been equally brilliant Soviets who, apart from Gagarian, remain unnamed and lost so our histories must be incomplete.
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