Chinese artist Coco Wang has written a series of comic strips featuring stories pulled from the rubble of the recent earthquakes in China. Most of the episodes center on people trapped beneath collapsed buildings; excruciating rescues, last-minute losses, and even incidents of parents shielding children with their own bodies are presented in heartbreaking detail.

The tone verges on mythical, and it can even veer into sentiment, but the situations depicted are rending, particularly since  many victims were children trapped in their schools. There’s some light humor to break the tension as well, with rescuers cracking jokes to keep victims awake. Sometimes they suceed; often they don’t.