Grant Butler, A&E editor at The (Portland) Oregonian led an hour-long presentation on Sept. 29 that encouraged editors to think beyond the traditional prose narrative and find ways to work charticles, creative use of typography and illustrated stories into their feature sections.

Butler was joined by three other journalists with experience working with unconventional narratives: M. E. Russell, who reports and draws the comic CulturePulp for The Oregonian; Rob Clark, editor of Quick, a daily tabloid targeting young adult readers published by the Dallas Morning News; and David Staples, a columnist and feature writer at the Edmonton Journal.

Graphic formats such as charticles help readers sort factual information in a fun way, Butler said. Young readers like getting their information this way, and are familiar with the style, which is frequently used in magazines. Even the New York Times has begun experimenting with the format with its new Funny Pages section in the Sunday magazine, the panelists pointed out.

However, the panelists warned, just because it's easy to read does not mean it's easy to write. Russell, whose comic illustrates news events in Portland, said it takes him about 20 hours of work to turn around a strip. Clark said it takes three to four days to put together the illustrated stories that his paper publishes. The lengthy features that Staple worked on took several months to complete.

Journalistic principles still apply when putting together these sorts of stories. Indeed, fact-checking can become even more important--and more difficult--if an illustrated story is used to dramatize events in which the facts are in dispute. Also, Grant said, the format is inherently subjective.

Staples spoke freely about the lessons his publication learned as it experimented with graphic storytelling techniques. Among them:

• The writer and the artist need "intense collaboration" with the subject of the story. The artist needs to meet the subject personally and "you must be able to interview and reinterview the subject," Staples said.
• Find the right artist. They need to be comfortable with the format and be prepared for the amount of work the story will require. Local art schools are a good source of potential artists.
• Use the format to your advantage. The script needs to be very clear, he said, and each panel should have its own box to make the flow easy on the reader.