The Soviet Union is desperate to plant its flag on the moon before America launches Apollo 11. He is, then, a ghostly figure, for all that he is seemingly invincible.Īs the war draws to a close, the frustrated Yeremin breaks the rules of engagement, and is court-martialled, exiled to a fighter station on remote Arctic island, a place where it is always winter. However, the Soviet Union's involvement in Korea must be kept secret, so while the American aces who are his counterparts become famous the world over, he must fly an unmarked plane and his identity must never be discovered.

Having trained as a pilot, he fights in the Korean war, shooting down so many American jets that he soon earns himself the nickname 'Ivan the Terrible'. Yefgenii Yeremin, whose parents were lost at Stalingrad, is condemned to life in a brutal orphanage until he wins a scholarship to air school. I adored it.Īscent asks us to imagine the possibility that, unbeknown to the west, the Russians managed to send a cosmonaut to the moon before the Americans. A collaboration between the prize-winning illustrator Wesley Robins and Jed Mercurio, on whose 2007 novel of the same name it is based, it's a beautiful thing, combining all the virtues of Mercurio's original work – gripping drama, a certain emotional brevity, a way of turning technical terms into a kind of poetry – with a series of drawings as poignant and as atmospheric as anything you will find in the work of Raymond Briggs. Ascent, though, is in a different class altogether. For every one that works, I'm sent (mentioning no names) at least three that don't. T he trend for turning regular novels into graphic novels continues apace, and it's a pretty hit and miss business, if you ask me.

Ascent by Jed Mercurio