Lauren Edlin and Zach King look over their collaborative comic book-style story that appeared in the student newspaper, The Torch.

Zach King and Lauren Edlin knew that they had to come up with a worthy encore.

In the 2008-2009 school year, they collaborated on a piece for The Torch, Valparaiso University’s student newspaper, in an effort that combined comic book-style drawing and photography to tell a story.

Their creation, “Glaucon,” was born. The March 27, 2009, story, “The Resurgence of Comic Books,” covered the front and two inside pages of The Torch’s entertainment section.

The panel structure is familiar to comics fans and nonfans alike. The story explores the popularity of comic books and in particular the surge in movie adaptations such as “The Dark Knight” and the “Spider-Man” series. Professors, students, and the owner of a local comics store were among those interviewed and photographed.

“When I told people what we were working on, it required some explaining,” said King, who did the writing and took the photos. Edlin drew and colored the pieces.

“I’m a huge comic-book guy,” King said. “Everybody in The Torch office knows this about me.”

“I just enjoy the format and style,” Edlin said. “Zach pretty much approached me with the idea.”

“I left the story in Lauren’s hands,” King said.

Their inaugural collaboration was so well received that they decided to do it again. “This One’s For You,” another two-page story, appeared on March 26, one day shy of exactly a year after the first one appeared.

‘This One’s For You” is more creatively abstract than the panel approach of the 2009 work, but it includes the same photo-and-interview integration.

King said the “Glaucon” creators were once again up working until six in the morning on the Thursday before deadline, but that all that effort was worth it.

“I do think, graphically, that it works very well,” Edlin said.

“We called it our ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ approach,” King said.

King, from Dyer, Ind., who just completed his senior year at Valpo, majored in English, history and the humanities, and was assistant managing editor of The Torch. Edlin, a senior-to-be philosophy major from Indianapolis, will be graphic design editor of The Torch in the fall.

“Valpo is a good place for this sort of collaboration,” King said.

“People really do think creatively here, especially at The Torch,” Edlin said.