Let it be known that from this moment forward, all news shall come from various other social networking sources. And while my Twitter account languishes in suspension (I swear, I really don’t believe that this plan will work for you because it worked for my entire family) I turn to my various webcomicking Facebook friends to pass along the good news to me.

And what good news this is! As David Reddick, star of The Legend of Bill and soon to be guest artist on an arc of Superfogeys: Origins (link not to Reddick’s work but beautiful nonetheless) is officially joining the fine stable of comics over at Blank Label Comics! Don’t believe Facebook? Then take it straight from Reddick himself (via The Legend of Bill site):

My pal Paul Taylor of Wapsi Square just called me with the great news: I have been formally invited to join the fine quality folks at BLANK LABEL COMICS!

BLC is the collective to some of the web’s finest and most popular webcomics, including such hits as Schlock Mercenary, Wapsi Square, Ugly Hill, Real Life, Shortpacked and Melonpool. I have the utmost respect for this crew of true believers, and Legend of Bill will now keep company with these great strips.

The original members of BLC, not unlike a great music band, were Brad Guigar, Paul Southworth, Kristofer Straub, Paul Taylor, Steve Troop, and David Willis, with Greg Dean, Dave Kellett and Howard Tayler joining in 2005.

With this strategic move, Reddick certainly places himself firmly in the company of webcomic royalty (as evidenced by the amount of quality links in those two paragraphs) and the added exposure will only ensure that this shining star of the webcomics world will shine brighter and farther than ever before. So congratulations to David from everyone here at Digital Strips! You couldn’t be in better company with this move.

Interview-a-rama: I talk to Diana McQueen about the relaunch of Girlamatic at Robot 6, and Christoher Irving interviews Josh Neufeld, creator of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, at the NYC Graphic Novelists blog.

Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly rounded up the digital comics news from San Diego Comic-Con, and Ellie Connelly creator Indigo Kelleigh muses on lessons learned at SDCC. It’s an entertaining post with solid advice for creators who are new to the con scene.

CBR has coverage of the Digital Comics: The Future Is Now panel, which was mainly a discussion of the different platforms, including a couple of newly announced ones, Longbox and comiXology’s iPhone app.

The Archie Digital Comics Store is up and running. Like the Marvel Digital Comics Universe, it offers a good chunk of the archives for unlimited reading; passes are $9.95 for a month or $49.95 per year. There are more details at the Archie blog.

One of the stories that has been bubbling around the internets over the past week is that of David Rees (creator of Get Your War On) vs. Jamba Juice (creator of smoothies). Some PR firm hired by Jamba Juice decided they would hop on the cool bandwagon by making some clip-art comics about guys sitting in an office discussing pointless topics and shilling for Jamba Juice. The PR guys may have thought they were on safe ground because Rees used copyright-free clip art to create his comic in the first place, but he obviously created something with a unique look and feel, which they blatantly copied. If you’re new to the party, here’s a good interview that sums up what happened and Rees’s reaction, but you really should go read his blog, starting here, because his reaction to the whole thing is an entertaining piece of blog theater in and of itself.

We have been hearing rumors for a while that Apple is working on a larger version of the iPod touch, something in the 6×9″ range that would be ideal for, among other things, reading comics. Well, the latest inside story rumor is that Apple is going all out to launch the item in September 2009, months ahead of the earlier schedule. They seem to be thinking more in terms of music and movies than books, but obviously this would be a good format for comics as well.

Meanwhile, the content for the regular iPhone/iPod Touch continues to roll in. Two very different but very major creators announced direct-to-iPhone releases at San Diego Comic-Con last week: Stan Lee will bring his Stripperella to the small screen, and Lewis Trondheim will be putting an original comic on the iPhone as well. (Via Robot 6.) In addition, Markosia Comics announced a four-issue “cyberpunk-styled” series, The Dark.

Speaking of Stan Lee he is teaming up with Disney to create Time Jumper, an original digital motion comic that will be available from iTunes starting later this week. The website is already live and features a video of Stan Lee himself along with some spoofs of headhunter ads. Lee will voice one of the characters, Lee Excelsior. The app went up on iTunes today and at $7.99 for a season pass, it’s one of their pricier apps.

Robot Comics has launched a line of comics for the Kindle, starting with Desert Peach, by Donna Barr.

Johanna Draper Carlson discusses some of the disadvantages of digital media at Comics Worth Reading.

Amazon has dropped the price of the basic 6″ Kindle to $299. I’m not sure if this is genius or desperation, but it’s still a lot of money. (Memo to Amazon: All the cool kids are using these “links” now that aren’t 140 characters long. You might try it sometime.)

Andrews McMeel has combined Universal Features Syndicate with its Uclick division, which develops and markets comics for mobile phones to form a new company, Universal Uclick. The move will eliminate overlap between the two companies and allow them to market comics more efficiently through a variety of channels.

And all the rest of our news is about manga, which seems to be heading toward handhelds in a big way—which is not surprising, given the popularity of cell phone manga in Japan.

At Anime Expo, eigoManga publisher Austin Osueke pointed to webcomics as the possible solution for the slump in manga sales and revealed that his company is working on an iPhone app that will allow the user to read a sample comic and then buy it on their phone.

Lori Henderson looks over small-screen manga readers at Manga Xanadu.

Go! Comi has released Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan for the iPhone. At 99 cents for the entire book, this a real bargain, and it’s a book that many non-manga fans will enjoy as well. Deb Aoki reviews the digital version at About.com.

Digital Manga will be publishing Yellow 2, the sequel to the popular yaoi manga Yellow; what makes this webcomics news is the fact that Yellow 2 was published only on cell phones in Japan, so the U.S. edition will be the first print edition.

Digital also put out a press release this week about a slew of manga they are putting on the Kindle store. This is a bit cheaper than print versions, but as I pointed out at MangaBlog, Vampire Hunter D fans would do better getting their fix directly from iTunes.

The Cartoon Art Museum is planning a show called Monsters of Webcomics, which they describe as “a showcase of cutting-edge webcomics work.” They have already selected the ten headliners, but other creators are invited to submit their work for inclusion as well.

And here’s a call from an artist who wants to turn your dreams into webcomics.

David Pepose of Blog@Newsarama interviews Sin Titulo creator Cameron Stewart, and Sean Kleefeld discovers that the comic is coherent when you read it backward as well as forward (and he has an interesting discussion of why that is).

I’m hearing great things about the print version of Bayou. Here’s a Jonathan Kuelein’s review from the Toronto Star.

Speaking of Zuda, Johanna Draper Carlson is not too impressed with what she sees—a lot of the same type of comic, not enough exposition, and a reader that loads slower than molasses in January. David Gallaher pops in in comments with a helpful fix for that last problem.

The Girls Entertainment Network is reviewing the Eisner nominees in various categories; here’s their look at the contenders for Best Digital Comic. (Via Robot 6.)

Tyler Chin-Tanner has some thoughts on Longbox, which supposedly is going to be the iTunes for comics at Broken Frontier. (Discussion question: Isn’t iTunes the iTunes for comics?) (Via The Beat.)

The latest Webcomic Beacon podcast is all about the benefits of going multilingual.

Some new things to try: Scott McCloud describes Neo Mento as “sharp stuff in a readable, innovative format” on his blog. Scott notes a couple of photo comics as well. And check out R&R Comics, a new anthology site that is just getting off the ground, if you want to start reading your comics from the beginning.

We have mocked Dark Horse in the past for putting their webcomics up on MySpace, but there’s no denying that MySpace Dark Horse Presents has been a success, with thousands of readers and two volumes in print. There’s a glitch, though: MySpace laid off 400 people last June, and the folks who worked on the Dark Horse site were among them, so that page has not updated since June 3. ICv2 talks to MSDHP editor Sierra Hahn about the current status of the page and Dark Horse’s decision to host this month’s update on their own site.

Josh Neufeld posts some video of his presentation on How to be an Obscure Alternative Cartoonist Specializing in Real-Life Topics, which I’m sure is of interest to many of us.

Joey Manley continues to document his experiment in return on investment for various ad schemes.

At Newsarama, Chris Arrant talks to Andy Belanger about his new Zuda comic, Bottle of Awesome.

John Hogan talks to Jeremy Love, creator of Bayou, at Graphic Novel Reporter.

Sean Kleefeld follows a Tweet to the supposedly awesome new Wowio 3.0 and is puzzled but not impressed. A comment from a disgruntled unpaid artist suggests that things haven’t changed much.

Art Patient has a big ol’ link post up with lots of reviews and news, and I suggest you check it out. Here are a couple of reviews that I particularly enjoyed:

John Hogan on the print edition of Bayou (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Larry Cruz on Boss Noodle, by Chugworth Academy creator Dave Cheung (The Webcomic Overlook)
Elle Dee on Gisele Lagace’s new webcomic, Eerie Cuties (Storming the Tower)
Larry Cruz on Loyalty & Liberty, a graphic novel of the American Revolution as enacted by cats! Terrifying cats! (The Webcomic Overlook)
RKB on Sin Titulo, a rare critical review of this series (with some good points) (Pigs of the Industry)