I have found some nice tutorials of UIcollectionview over the net
http://www.raywenderlich.com/22324/beginning-uicollectionview-in-ios-6-part-12
http://ashf
Yes. It can be done either way. please refer to following examples.
UPDATE: This(1st) example is more suitable for the question.. http://adoptioncurve.net/archives/2012/09/a-simple-uicollectionview-tutorial/
http://blogs.captechconsulting.com/blog/paul-dakessian/ios-6-tutorial-getting-started-collection-views
http://invasivecode.tumblr.com/post/34581461219/an-introduction-to-collection-views.
I am not very sure but there shouldn't be any pros and cons for using storyboards apart from its easy to implement.