Comics aren't just for kids anymore. But do they have a place in the newsroom? Jim Willse thinks so.
Last March, Willse, editor of the Newark
Star-Ledger, and one of the industry's more adventurous leaders, offered readers accustomed to bite-size morsels of visual storytelling on the comics page a unique graphic feast in the pages of the Sunday Business section.
Like a superhero disguised as a mild-mannered reporter, "Action Figures," six full-color broadsheet pages that reported the "ups and downs of the modern comic-book industry," served up explanatory financial journalism in comic book form.
Written and drawn by staff cartoonist Drew Sheneman, with reporting by Amy Nutt, "Action Figures" used the journalist's facts and figures and the comic book writer's tools -- pen, brush, larger-than-life characters and humor -- to tell a complicated business story in a fresh and fun way.
During a recent Poynter seminar, Willse described the project and his belief in the comic as a medium for narrative in a session called "SuperProse: How Comics Can Make You a Better Writer."
Thanks to Jim Stem, who took the photographs, and Larry Larsen, Poynter Online's multimedia editor, you can sit in on Willse's session, as well as read "Action Figures."
