Laika fictionalizes a lot, giving Laika a back story that's pure imagination, but there's also a lot of seemingly historically accurate and well researched story and characters there. The leader of the space program being a former prisoner at a Gulag was an interesting bit of info.

Tiananmen is autobiographical to an extent, but the author says it's not exactly his story, but the story of people like him. Once again it seemed fairly accurate, though I'm not terribly well informed on the subject.

Both comics were decent. Laika was more emotionally evocative, Tiananmen tried to be more accurate, from a protestor's perspective. The art was nice, especially with Laika, which took some creative liberties. Neither book was very long, so definitely worth picking up if you happen upon them.