Comics So Good They Should Not Be Free: Panda Panda

Do you find it difficult to relate on an emotional level to global tragedy? Another question; do you find pandas adorable?

Cartoonist Coco Wang has been posting short comics that illustrate accounts of the May 12th China earthquakes. Her drawings are instantly appealing, and I'd like to point you towards one story in particular: Panda Panda, in which some brave panda researchers (!) risk life and limb to save baby pandas. Repeat: baby pandas.

The other comics on the site are less Panda-centric, but excellent nonetheless. Wang focuses on stories of heroism and bravery but doesn't skim over the horror of the disaster, and many of the comics are seriously heart-wrenching. They each give a pointed, intimate look into the lives of individuals caught in the quake, and it's a wonderful example of illustrated journalism that reminded me of one of my favorite webcomics of all time, After the Deluge.

A.D: New Orleans After the Deluge Getting Some Much Deserved Attention

With the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina upon us, artist Josh Neufeld's insightful illustrated account of the disaster is getting some well-deserved attention from the mainstream press. The L.A Times has an excellent article on A.D: New Orleans After the Deluge, which is currently being published for free as an online serial at Smith Magazine. New readers will want to start from the beginning - once you wrap your head around the high-intensity prologue, you'll find it next to impossible not to keep reading till you run out of chapters. Lucky for us, Chapter Six just went up.

I really do believe A.D is destined to be one of the great nonfiction comics, and should grab anyone who saw the greatest natural disaster of our time unfold two years ago. For all of us who were stunned by the images on TV during those long days, A.D. offers a chance to understand the larger-than-life events on an individual level. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it in the next several months.

Related: Geekanerd's Coverage of the Chapter Five release.

Via Newsarama and Smith Magazine.