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http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-17/entertainment/ct-ae-0819-borrelli-illustrated-journalism-20120816_1_journalism-cartoonist-poynter-institute
Cartoonist-journalists sketch out a future for their emerging medium
August 17, 2012|Christopher Borrelli
Founded
by Erin Polgreen, Symbolia is a tablet magazine of illustrated
journalism that pairs incendiary reporting with thoughtful illustration
and comics.
Erin
Polgreen folded her iPad into a tight pyramid, slid the tablet across
the coffeehouse counter and smiled a confident smile. We were in
Humboldt Park, and on the screen — assuming enough newspaper and
magazine editors eventually listen to the 30-year-old journalist and
media consultant — was the future of journalism. Or rather, a
future for journalism. No, wait, make that: a future for journalism
that she and a handful of journalists and cartoonists would like to see
become a real thing, an honest-to-goodness niche.
She's advocating for illustrated journalism.
I asked to meet her because she has big plans for illustrated journalism, goals that are probably too ambitious for most traditional media outlets. Which suggests the Humboldt Park resident may be on to something. Her iPad showed the first issue of Symbolia, the tablet-based magazine of illustrated journalism that she's launching in October through Apple's App Store. She is very serious about making illustrated journalism a thing. Indeed, she's been advocating for illustrated journalism — meaning, reporting that is mostly drawn and often resembles a graphic novel — for a couple of years, giving seminars on illustrated journalism at the South By Southwest Interactive conference and for the Poynter Institute.
She's also being taken seriously.
Last spring, after landing $34,000 in grants from the International Women's Media Foundation, McCormick Foundation and J-Lab, an American University-based center that promotes fresh approaches to old-school journalism, she posted an online call for submissions for Symbolia. In less than two weeks, she received more than 80 pitches from journalists and cartoonists. She selected a handful of artists and writers to work with. She insisted her contributors submit audio clips of interviews, photos, contact numbers. And then, once stories began to come in, she hired a fact checker to sift through each one. "I want this to work within journalism structures that already exist," she said. Pieces may resemble comic books, but everything is factual. Every quote is a real quote, and every person in the story exists (or once existed) in the real world, and every situation really happened.
You know, journalism.
"Immersive" is the word she reaches for when asked what illustrative journalism does better than, say, a story like this one, mostly made of words. "Illustrated journalism draws you in. It's accessible in a way 5,000 words of text isn't. Regardless of age, gender or anything, you grasp it faster than most journalism."
I flipped through Symbolia.
Cartoonist-journalist Sarah Glidden has a piece about rollerblading in Iraq; there's a nice primer on psych rock in Zambia; a fun story about scientists and new species; and, best, Bay Area journalist Susie Cagle (who refers to herself as a "former words-only reporter") presents a story about the future of the Salton Sea, rooted in interviews with people who live in California's Imperial Valley and have watched the Salton dissolve. It condenses environmental degradation and class differences, history and anxiety, empathy and anger into about two dozen bright, smartly illustrated pages, painting a literal, graspable narrative of a complex subject.
None of this is new, of course.
Comic book artist Joe Kubert, who died last week at 85, was not just the creator of DC Comics' Sgt. Rock. His "Tales of the Green Beret" newspaper strip in the 1960s (originally distributed by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate) was rooted in Vietnam War reporting, and his 2010 graphic novel, "Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965," was based around interviews with war veterans. Polgreen's lectures on illustrated journalism make reference to centuries-old Japanese narratives and illustrated newspapers of the 19th century.
I asked to meet her because she has big plans for illustrated journalism, goals that are probably too ambitious for most traditional media outlets. Which suggests the Humboldt Park resident may be on to something. Her iPad showed the first issue of Symbolia, the tablet-based magazine of illustrated journalism that she's launching in October through Apple's App Store. She is very serious about making illustrated journalism a thing. Indeed, she's been advocating for illustrated journalism — meaning, reporting that is mostly drawn and often resembles a graphic novel — for a couple of years, giving seminars on illustrated journalism at the South By Southwest Interactive conference and for the Poynter Institute.
She's also being taken seriously.
Last spring, after landing $34,000 in grants from the International Women's Media Foundation, McCormick Foundation and J-Lab, an American University-based center that promotes fresh approaches to old-school journalism, she posted an online call for submissions for Symbolia. In less than two weeks, she received more than 80 pitches from journalists and cartoonists. She selected a handful of artists and writers to work with. She insisted her contributors submit audio clips of interviews, photos, contact numbers. And then, once stories began to come in, she hired a fact checker to sift through each one. "I want this to work within journalism structures that already exist," she said. Pieces may resemble comic books, but everything is factual. Every quote is a real quote, and every person in the story exists (or once existed) in the real world, and every situation really happened.
You know, journalism.
"Immersive" is the word she reaches for when asked what illustrative journalism does better than, say, a story like this one, mostly made of words. "Illustrated journalism draws you in. It's accessible in a way 5,000 words of text isn't. Regardless of age, gender or anything, you grasp it faster than most journalism."
I flipped through Symbolia.
Cartoonist-journalist Sarah Glidden has a piece about rollerblading in Iraq; there's a nice primer on psych rock in Zambia; a fun story about scientists and new species; and, best, Bay Area journalist Susie Cagle (who refers to herself as a "former words-only reporter") presents a story about the future of the Salton Sea, rooted in interviews with people who live in California's Imperial Valley and have watched the Salton dissolve. It condenses environmental degradation and class differences, history and anxiety, empathy and anger into about two dozen bright, smartly illustrated pages, painting a literal, graspable narrative of a complex subject.
None of this is new, of course.
Comic book artist Joe Kubert, who died last week at 85, was not just the creator of DC Comics' Sgt. Rock. His "Tales of the Green Beret" newspaper strip in the 1960s (originally distributed by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate) was rooted in Vietnam War reporting, and his 2010 graphic novel, "Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965," was based around interviews with war veterans. Polgreen's lectures on illustrated journalism make reference to centuries-old Japanese narratives and illustrated newspapers of the 19th century.
"There's
also an argument that Thomas Nast and his (late 19th century) editorial
cartoons were some of the earliest examples of comics journalism," said
cartoonist-journalist Josh Neufeld, author of the well-received "A.D.:
New Orleans After the Deluge," a portrait of New Orleans residents
struggling through Hurricane Katrina. (Another sign this form may be
having a moment: Neufeld is about to begin a Knight-Wallace Fellowship
for journalism at the University of Michigan, the first Knight-Wallace fellowship given to a cartoonist-journalist.)
Then there's Joe Sacco, kingfish of illustrated journalism. His book-length narratives about war zones ("Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia," 2001) and the displaced ("Palestine," 1996) — grim, black-and-white, first-person narratives, dense with quotes and choked with details — set the standard for the form.
As Josh Kramer, aWashington, D.C.-based journalist who recently started The Cartoon Picayune, a print quarterly for illustrated journalism, said, "Joe's the standard bearer."
What's different about this moment is how much illustrated journalism there seems to be.
Then there's Joe Sacco, kingfish of illustrated journalism. His book-length narratives about war zones ("Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia," 2001) and the displaced ("Palestine," 1996) — grim, black-and-white, first-person narratives, dense with quotes and choked with details — set the standard for the form.
As Josh Kramer, aWashington, D.C.-based journalist who recently started The Cartoon Picayune, a print quarterly for illustrated journalism, said, "Joe's the standard bearer."
What's different about this moment is how much illustrated journalism there seems to be.
