From the BLURB:
In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped
from the Baghdad zoo during an American bombing raid. Lost and confused, hungry
but finally free, the four lions roamed the decimated streets of Baghdad in a
desperate struggle for their lives. In documenting the plight of the lions,
PRIDE OF BAGHDAD raises questions about the true meaning of liberation – can it
be given or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice? And in
the end, is it truly better to die free than to live life in captivity?
‘Pride of
Baghdad’ was the 2006 stand-alone graphic novel written by Brian K. Vaughan and
illustrated by Niko Henrichon.
Fair
warning: this is not The Lion King of
your childhood. You could probably guess that if you’re at all familiar with
Brian K. Vaughan’s work – Y: The Last Man,
Ex Machina or Saga, take your pick – this guy likes tough stories. ‘Pride of
Baghdad’ is actually based on a true event from 2003, about lions that escaped
from Baghdad zoo, amidst the bombing of the city by US troops. So it’s already
grounded in pretty gritty reality, by Vaughan manages to add layers upon layers
of intrigue and disturbia to an already pretty upsetting story.
We follow
two lions – a cub called Ali and older lion called Zill – along with two lionesses,
Ali’s mother Noor and oldest among them Safa. When we meet them, Noor – the
leader of their ramshackle pride – is concocting yet another doomed-to-fail
plan to escape from the zoo and get back to the wild she remembers from her
cub-days. Safa is always sceptical, and doesn’t want to leave the safety of the
zoo and daily meals provided for by keepers – Safa has her own memories of the
wilderness, and they’re not all happy ones. Ali, meanwhile, doesn’t know what a
horizon is and Zill is getting old, fat and grumpy.
One day the
sky starts falling – fighter jets fly over head and the keepers throw a zebra
carcass into the lion pen, a meal that’s meant to last them days, possibly
weeks … and then the zoo is blown up and all the animals escape – Noor, Ali,
Safa and Zill included.
We follow
them as they roam the fallen city of Baghdad, encountering the outside world
for the first time since they were each (except Ali) plucked from the wild and
caged. The outside world as beautifully drawn by Niko Henrichon is burning: stark
oranges, reds and yellows fill the page along with plumes of smoke as they walk
through the debris of a bombed city. When the lions find their way into Saddam
Hussein’s palace, it’s a stark contrast to the burning world outside but still
eerie –like a mausoleum.
Brian K.
Vaughan hauntingly imagines these lions roaming “free” for the first time. But he
takes this anthropomorphism to another level – there’s sexual tension between
Zill, Safa and Noor and a truly sickening flashback to Safa’s life in the wild
provides some clues as to her craving for the confines of a cage. Ali’s
encountering of a tortoise brings some not-so-subtle political leanings to the story,
with talk of the “black water” that humans fight over. And there’s real
heartbreak to this story too – as there’s bound to be from the outset, when
Noor prophetically says that freedom should be earned, not given freely.
It’s quite
impressive really, how Vaughan manages to tie this rather odd true-story of a
bombed zoo (giving me hints of Sonya Hartnett’s ‘The Midnight Zoo’) to the
wider political arch of why those bombs were falling in the first place … But he
does so, and it’s a compelling – if depressing – tale.
5/5
