Graphic novels & Animated documentary

Autobiographical/ Biographical Graphic novels

Persepolis
Persepolis is an interesting case study as the film is not technically an animated documentary, more of an animated memoir, there are scenes that are undoubtedly added to increase entertainment (Marjane dancing through the streets to eye of the tiger im sure did not happen). However it is often categorised within this genre, and is certainly influential. It is yet another high profile example of originating from a graphic novel based around factual biographies, the leap from comic strip to animation has always been around since the birth of film but it is only since the late 80's the Graphic novel has gained credibility. This in turn has led to a new source of biographical tales to adapt into film and with the graphic novel being a blend of literary & Visual artistry it seems the revelant way to adapt into animated film.

"People generally assume that a graphic novel is like a movie storyboard, which of course is not the case. With graphic novels, the relationship between the writer and reader is participatory. In film, the audience is passive. It involves motion, sound, music, so therefore the narrative's design and content is very different.
The look of the film? yes, I guess it could be defined as ‘stylised realism’, because we wanted the drawing to be completely life-like, not like a cartoon. Therefore, unlike a cartoon, we didn't have that much of a margin in terms of facial expressions and movement. This was the message which I was determined to convey to designers and animators".
Marjane Sartrapi on Persepolis

Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco is an award winning war journalist & graphic novelist famous for Palestine, Safe area Goražde and The Fixer
He travelled war zones & captured peoples stories then presented them in a graphic novel format rather than a standard article

History/ historical event Graphic Novels

Hurricane Katrina & 9/11 are just two recent events in history which have been turned into journalistic style graphic novels. where a Live action fiction film would be seen as an cash in & a cheesy survival tale; An animated non-fiction film or graphic novel can accurately portray an illustrated/photographic account of the events, survivors tale & emotionally reach & inform an audience.

AD New Orleans: after the deluge is a webcomic turned Graphic novel about Katrina's effect on New Orleans citizens by Josh Neufeld.
Neufeld draws upon interviews with the actual people represented in the story; newspaper, magazine, and blog accounts of the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and its effects on New Orleans; and his own experiences as a Red Cross volunteer in the weeks after the storm. The web version of A.D. also utilizes the Internet in a variety of interesting ways to expand the scope of the story beyond the comic itself. Many pages and panels have links to outside sources such as audio and video clips, newspapers stories, photo essays, and the like. The A.D. website also features audio & video clips from the characters, a blogroll, a resource library, and a blog (in addition to a comments section for each chapter)

Brought to light
Brought to light - Shadowplay: The Secret Team written by Alan Moore and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz covers the history of the Central Intelligence Agency and its controversial involvement in the Vietnam War, the Iran-Contra affair, and its relationship with figures like Augusto Pinochet and Manuel Noriega. The narrator of Shadowplay is an aging anthropomorphic American Eagle, a bellicose retired CIA agent.
The way it tells a factual, researched history but through a metaphorical animal character (the eagles as America) marks it out as a kind of renaissance in the way of historical documentary practices. It provides a comprehensive history of a standard documentary approach, with the metaphorical visual characters of a Jan Svankjmaer film. Plans to base films upon it have already been discussed since its publication in 1988. It is my hope that any film would stick to its comic book appropriation of the animated documentary tradition.