For better or worse, Iraq is an absolutely fascinating country. Even after having spent nearly three years there, it’s always a challenge for me to describe the place. The ancient capital city of Baghdad— the historic setting of the literary classic One Thousand and One Nights— is home to millions of Iraqis, each of them with their own unique story.
“Pride of Baghdad” is just one such tale.
The Baghdad Zoo was built in 1971, inside the city’s Zawra’a Park. The facilities were generally considered to be insufficient, and the creatures suffered in their small confinement spaces. In the wake of the sanctions that followed the first Gulf War, animal feed and proper veterinary supplies were nearly impossible to come by. These bleak conditions turned into absolute horror in 2003, when bombs rained over the city during the invasion of Iraq. Zookeepers ran for cover and a number of cages were damaged, allowing many of the animals to escape. Entire flocks of animals made their way out of the park, venturing out into the City of Peace in search of food.
And as unlikely as it might sound, among the escapees was a pride of lions.
In a fascinating work of anthropomorphism, Brian K. Vaughan’s story explores the natural conflicts and mistrust which fester among the Zoo’s resident species. The graphic novel follows a pride of four lions as they make their way through the city, disoriented by their new surroundings and the chaos of the ongoing invasion. The giant tanks rumbling past, the tracer rounds snapping and whining through the air— these are just a few of the sights and sounds which are incomprehensible to animals bred in captivity.
As the pride travels down the banks of the Tigris, the four creatures— Zill, Safa, Noor and Ali— find themselves relying on the perspective of free-born creatures to make sense of their situation. The pride comes into contact— and conflict— with a number of other species, both free-born and bred in captivity. Eventually, in a tragic true ending, the lions come to discover that they’re simply not compatible with these new surroundings.
With each turn of the page, “Pride of Baghdad” alternates between being a fun, funny comic and a dark, powerful graphic novel. It’s a story that leaves the reader fully satisfied, even as they finish the book with more questions than answers.