Stanislaw Lem a Polish writer of science fiction in the early 2oth century. He wrote with an astonishing diversity of forms – entertaining to very dark. His science fiction followed  form- cosmic exploration and utopian visions of the future were favorite targets of his satire. He had a favorite character: Ljon Tichy and his story the Seventh Voyage has Lljon as his main character in this time travel parody.

Jon Muth grew up reading science fiction and Lem. When Scholastic created its graphic novel division:Graphix, they reached out to him to write a graphic novel. Muth chose one of his favorite authors as illustrated Lem’s story. The story is somewhat “Groundhog’s Day in nature, as astronaut Tichy, the lone astronaut on a spacecraft, is caught in a time loop and needs more than himself to guide his ship out of the loop. Each day he gets up to realize the problem and as the days pass,realize he must convince his previous days selves to help before the ship is beyond help.

The story is part of a short story collection based on the space adventures of astronaut Tichy.  The story is genius but it is Muth’s extraordinary illustrations that draw the reader into Lem’s space adventure.  He created sculpture models of astronaut Tichy and his spacecraft.

There is an author’s note explaining the author’s choice of story and how he created his illustrations. This is a graphic novel that stands on it s own but also introduces readers to a novelist, philosopher, futurist and critic modern readers might have missed. In an article from the Boston Globe written in February of this year states: “He possessed a wide -ranging mind. His work looked at the communication between humans and non-humans . One of his greatest gifts was his understanding of how the future works” says Simon Ings. With our renewed interest in space, add this to your graphic novel collection for grades 7 and up.

A cream selection.

Submitted by Kathy George, Gray Public Library,Gray