Return Data and Update Row without Multiple Lookups?
You could do it all in one step, like this.

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.IncrementArtViews (@Slug varchar(250)) AS

UPDATE a
SET ArtViews = ArtViews + 1
OUTPUT a.ArtID, a.ArtUserID, a.ArtTitle, a.ArtHtml, a.ArtDescription,
 a.ArtKeywords, a.ArtLicenseID, l.licTitle, a.ArtViews, a.ArtCreated, 
 a.ArtUpdated, s.SubID, s.SubTitle, c.CatID, c.CatTitle, sec.SecID, 
 sec.SecTitle, u.UsrDisplayName AS UserName
FROM dbo.Article a
 INNER JOIN dbo.Subcategory s ON a.ArtSubcategoryID = s.SubID
 INNER JOIN dbo.Category c ON s.SubCatID = c.CatID
 INNER JOIN dbo.[Section] sec ON c.CatSectionID = sec.SecID
 INNER JOIN dbo.[User] u ON a.ArtUserID = u.UsrID
 INNER JOIN dbo.License l ON a.ArtLicenseID = l.LicID
WHERE a.ArtSlugHash = CHECKSUM(@Slug)
 AND a.ArtSlug = @Slug
 AND a.ArtApproved = 1