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Looking back on all of humanity's successes in space, it can be easy to forget that many of our accomplishments have been built on the sacrifices of other creatures. Here are ten animals who played an indispensable role in paving the inter-planetary way to space. More »
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Check out the latest trailer for ParaNorman, a new stop-motion film from the brilliant minds at Laika (the folks behind Coraline). We kind of love the idea of a little kid who can see dead people whose mental psyche hasn't been horrible scarred. More »
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We're exceptionally giddy over the release of the trailer for ParaNorman. It's from the makers of Coraline, which elevated the children's genre with stunning art and solid, real scares. ParaNorman is all about a special boy with the ability to talk to the dead. Check out the first ever trailer, and get into the slightly slanted world that directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler created. More »
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Back in 2007, Nick Abadzis wrote a graphic novel called Laika, about the eponymous Soviet dog who went bravely into space, proved that living creatures could survive there, and never came home. He says that the story was so sad that over the years, people have written to him over and over asking for another ending to the real-life tale. At last, he's decided to do it. Over the next six weeks, he'll be posting (happy) alternate history endings to Laika's tale. You can find them on the Big Planet Comics site — these stores in the Washington, DC area have commissioned the alternate endings from Abadzis to celebrate their 25th anniversary. More »
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2010 has set the bar pretty high for holiday-themed art. And now it's our turn to share that joy with you. Here's a collection of the best and the freakiest holiday cards, prints and illustrations. From stuffed Rudolph to Bigfoot. More »
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Soviet space dogs had their mugs plastered on stamps, cigarettes, matchbooks, and other baubles. Here's ephemera featuring Belka and Strelka, the first dogs to survive a space flight, and Laika, the first animal to live (and sadly die) in orbit. More »
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It's been the decade where comic culture took over pop culture, and superheroes became movie stars. But what are some of our picks for the best comics from the last ten years? We're glad you - okay, we - asked. More »
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We'll admit it; we're suckers for a good dog story. Old Yeller gets us everytime, and we'll at least consider Turner and Hooch everytime it's on television. Okay, maybe not that last one. But Nick Abadzis' Laika would impress even if we hated all animals and had hearts of stone. A fictionalized biography of the first dog in space, Abadzis' graphic novel not only tells the story of the starbound hound, but also manages to contextualize it perfectly with ease, adding in the stories of chief Sputnik II designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev and caretaker Yelena Dubrosky and making the book a curiously rounded, full take on the ultimately tragic success of the mission. Even without its real life basis, however, this is just a stunning display of talent, with British cartoonist Abadzis - who first broke into the industry in Deadline magazine alongside Tank Girl and Gorillaz creator Jamie Hewlett - showing a command of the page that many more well-known names could never even come close to. More »
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Laika's space suit. Mosaics made from butterfly wings. Superstitions brought to life. Find out what mesmerizing objects are in the strangest museum on Earth and marvel at a collection of artifacts and relics would make even Artie jealous. More »
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Say you want to get your loved ones some "comic books" for the holidays - Which ones would make their yuletides merry? We've chosen ten of our favorite recent SF graphic novels to help out.

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Neil Gaiman’s had his hand in a lot of Hollywood pots of late. Last year, he co-wrote the screenplay for Beowulf and saw his book Stardust make it to the big screen. But perhaps his most promising film project to date is dark fairytale Coraline, currently getting the stop-motion treatment courtesy of Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas. Five new featurettes give us a glimpse of how Selick is bringing Gaiman’s vision to three-dimensional life. More »
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A moment of silence, please, to mark this particularly special day in the history of space exploration. 51 years ago today, Russia launched Sputnik II into space, with a special passenger onboard - Laika, the first living mammal to orbit the Earth... as well as the first mammal to die in space (She died, it was revealed in 2002, from stress during the first seven hours of the mission). Her remains disintegrated, along with the rest of Sputnik II upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in April, 1958, but her brief flight changed the course of human history. More »
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China plans to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and a crewed spaceship during 2008. But that's not going to be enough to scare the United States into launching a new space race. And the U.S. really, really needs a new space race to get us to take space exploration seriously again. More »
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