At Blog@Newsarama, Kyle Latino interviews Michael Murphey, of iVerse Media, about their Star Trek: Countdown comic for the iPhone. Latino himself usually doesn’t by Star Trek comics, but he was impressed by the way this one was adapted to the new medium:

What really blew me away was how sucked in I was to the comic itself. There were clearly many choice that were made in the adaptation of this comic to touch phones that took advantage of the devices: segmenting longer panels into multi-screen panels, cropping panels and letting the wordballoons outside the gutter allowing the art to breath, slight zoom in repeated panels to display all the captions from wordier panels. There was never a sense of claustrophobia with caption and balloons crushing the storytelling.

That’s hard to accomplish on a handheld. Also, it was cheap!

This is a bit old, but it’s interesting: Gearlog test-drives comics on the Kindle.

Over in Japan, an older manga, Boys Be…, is getting a new lease on life via cell phone. The new series, Boys Be 2009 1, updates the original storylines of the 1991 manga.

On the French side, PC World has an article about adapting BDs to mobile-phone formats.

And here’s a solution for those who can’t afford an iPod to read their free comics apps on: Make your own!

Here’s a good laugh to end the week: C.B. Cebulski puts his comic S.A.S.E., about the grueling job of submissions editor, online for all to read for free.

At Blog@Newsarama, Henry Chamberlain interviews Box Brown, creator of the webcomic Bellen! and a Xeric award winner; this article was the first time I had seen the news that Bellen! is going to be part of comics.com, which is owned by United Features Syndicate.

The list of finalists for the Joe Shuster Awards, which honor the best Canadian comics creators, is up, and the list of webcomics/bandes dessiness web is impressive:

Kate Beaton for Hark! A Vagrant
Michael Cho for Papercut
Lar De Souza and Ryan Sohmer for Least I Could Do and Looking for Group
Kathryn and Stuart Immonen for Moving Pictures
Karl Kerschl for The Abominable Charles Christopher
Gisele Lagace for Menage A 3
Ramón K. Pérez for Kukuburi and Butternut Squash (with Robert Coughler)
Cameron Stewart for Sin Titulo

There’s plenty of good reading in there.

Congratulations to Jon Adams, who has managed to keep Truth Serum going for an entire year! He is celebrating by bringing in some guest artists to contribute to this week’s strips. (Via Robot6)

Here’s a timely review of a topical comic: Sarah Boslaugh reviews Economic Meltdown Funnies, which explains the current economic crisis and, from the looks of it, gets a few yuks in as well.

Indigo Kelleigh starts the relaunch of Ellie Connolly, a webcomic that I enjoyed very much in its previous incarnation, despite its brevity (and Bengo, I don’t mind her nose—she’s supposed to be funny and adventuresome, not sexy).

Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon announced yesterday that they are bringing back Casanova as a free, online comic, in color. Judging from bloggers’ reactions, this had better not be an April Fool’s joke. UPDATE: Pwned!

David Goodman has some advice on calculating how big a buffer a webcomics creator should have, and commenters chime in with their own experiences as well, at webcomics.com.

And over at the forum Panel and Pixel, webcomics creators discuss how often they update, how many pages they post at a time, and how they get the word out. (Via ComixTalk.)

The Washington Post’s Michael Cavna talks to Scott Kurtz about his use of Twitter and other social networking methods to build an audience.

Marc Alan Fishman explains why you should be reading Garfield Minus Garfield at ComicMix.

You know, a lot of iPhone apps sound kinda dumb, but I like this one: RingTales has an app that allows you to look at New Yorker cartoons on your iPhone. Since they are single-panel cartoons, I would imagine the format would work a bit better than chopped-up comic books, and the fun part is that you can shake the phone to get a new, randomly chosen set of thumbnails.

At the Gillian’s Heart blog, Dave Baxter touts the newest comic for the Google Android platform, Endless Buenos Aires #1.

Tom Spurgeon asked for webcomics suggestions from his readers, and he posts their latest recommendations at The Comics Reporter.

Shaun Manning interviews Nick Gurewitch about The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack, the print edition that’s shipping even as we speak. At The Daily Cross Hatch, Brian Heater posts part 2 of his interview with Gurewitch as well.

The Baltimore Sun takes a look at Disney’s multi-platform comics thing, Time Jumper. What’s nice is that Stan Lee, who is involved in the project, seems to be as excited about the content as the technology. (Via Robot 6.)

Sean Kleefeld discusses why comics publishers aren’t rushing into digital distribution. The short answer is that they don’t know where to begin, and the incentives aren’t really there either. At Pop Syndicate, Chris Williams takes a look at the problem from the other side; reporting from the ComicsPRO meeting, he discusses what digital distribution might mean for comics retailers. Reporting from the field, here’s Christopher Butcher as he liveblogs this month’s Previews:

Second FREAKANGELS collection. That one is the best-selling (for us) Ellis collection in years… I wonder what that says about alternate distribution methods eh?

Of course, that’s strictly anecdotal…

Meanwhile, Dan Hipp announces that the third volume of Gyakushu! will be online-only. The first two volumes, which were print-only, were published by Tokyopop

If selling T-shirts is an essential part of the webcomics business model, they might as well be good T-shirts; at webcomics.com, Brad Guigar posts the video of the T-shirt design panel at New England Webcomics Weekend. Also: Emerald City Comic Con is this weekend!

Chris Ullrich covers the Comics on Handhelds panel at SXSW.

At Publishers Weekly, Michael Fitzpatrick takes a look at Fujitsu e-book reader, recently launched in Japan, which seems to be the first e-paper reader to incorporate color. The FLEPia will go on sale April 20, and it sounds a lot like the Kindle except for the color and the fact that it costs $1,000. According to the article, the Fujitsu folks are working on bringing the price down and developing a U.S. edition, so stay tuned.

Brendan Wilhide reviews ComicZeal, an iPhone app that allows you to read comics, in color, using the standard iPhone navigation (swipe, pinch, tap). You can download some Golden Age comics for free or import your own in standard formats.

On the other hand, Sean Kleefeld expounds on the chief disadvantage of reading comics on the iPhone and similar devices: They are too small.

At Salon, Olly Farshi reviews the iTunes version of James Patterson’s graphic novel Daniel X.

Moving in a perfect cultural circle, British creator Sean Michael Wilson has just sold a comic for adaptation to Japanese mobile phones and e-books. The title? It’s a Japanese translation of his comic Lafcadio Hearn’s Japanese Ghost Stories—that’s right, a British comic about Japanese literature is being translated into Japanese. (I have seen the print version of the comic, actually, and it’s lovely.)

Lee Cheriolis was at New England Webcomics Weekend, and he posts the first of several videos, this one being Print vs. Web vs. A Bear, at Blog@Newsarama. Kevin Hodgson of The Graphic Classroom made a video, too.

Chickenhare creator Chris Grine is parting ways with Dark Horse and putting his comic online. (Via Robot6.)

Here’s another find from Robot6: a Webcomics 101 article from Interface, which styles itself “The Journal of Education, Community, and Values.” You can tell it’s a scholarly article ‘cos there’s footnotes!

In a rare moment of unanimity, we all really hated The Black Cherry Bombshells when it ran on Zuda, but the joke was on us: BCB won their month, and they are now celebrating their first anniversary. Plus I met the creators at NYCC and they were really nice guys who looked like they were having a good time making their comic. I’ll be reviewing it soon, but in the meantime, check out all the anniversary happenings on their MySpace blog. And look, here’s an interview by their local paper!

CSI: Colonies: The Smithsonian has a new kids’ webcomic, The Secret in the Cellar, about a forensic mystery from the 17th century, based more or less on fact. (Via The Graphic Classroom.)

Xaviar Xerxes talks to Brian Brabendererde, creator of Soul Chaser Betty, and Monty Kane of Planet Saturday at ComixTalk.

Brian Heater interviews Nicholas Gurewitch, creator of Perry Bible Fellowship, at The Daily Cross Hatch.

Larry Cruz reviews a manga with teens that look like teens, Evil Diva, at The Webcomic Overlook.

New blog alert: The UK site Down the Tubes has launched a news blog focusing on digital and mobile comics.

At the Newark Webcomics Review, Allison Bergh checks out a workplace webcomic, My 25 Percent.

New webcomic to check out: Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell (rec’d by Valerie d’Orazio via Twitter).

While we wait for Jason to file his Webcomics Weekend stories, here are some other bits of news from around the blogosphere:

Phil Foglio was one of the first creators to make the free webcomics model pay off in a big way, and he goes into the nuts and bolts of it at ICv2, explaining why the webcomics format saves him money and boosts creativity and giving actual numbers for web traffic, print runs and sales.

On the other hand, Indigo Kelleigh, the creator of Ellie Connelly, is facing some of the challenges that dog webcomics creators: he revealed on his blog that he has rebooted the promising adventure-comedy comic but put it on the back burner due to family problems, the pressure to do paid work, and a surprise appendectomy. We reviewed Ellie Connelly here a few months ago and really liked it, so I’m rooting for Indigo to make a comeback at the Emerald City Comicon.

At Blog@Newsarama, Kyle Latino and Lee Cherolis interview Casey Lau and Jeff Kwan, creators of Super Kaiju Hero Force, which debuted last week on the iPhone.

Here’s an interesting forum thread to check in on: Anime Vice writer Gia asks manga readers if they would switch from scanlations to legal e-manga if the price was right. There aren’t many answers yet, but I’m hoping for a robust discussion.

IDW is releasing iPod, iPhone, and Android versions of its Star Trek prequel Star Trek: Countdown, starting this week.

Sean Wang sci-fi series Runners has just launched as a free webcomic on the Runners World website.

Allison Bergh of the Newark Webcomics Examiner reviews a fairly new webcomic, Traitor.

Here’s an opportunity for creators: The Tangled Bank is looking for speculative works, including comics, for an online anthology celebrating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. Read the guidelines for all the details, including payment. (Via Comics Worth Reading.)

Tim O’Shea talks to Warren and Gary Pleece about their new comic, Montague Terrace, which debuted last week on Act-I-Vate.

Spider-Girl returns to the Marvel Universe—the Marvel Digital Comics Universe, that is. Interesting use of the platform to promote a niche product—they have a couple of the older stories up for free, and a brand-new one coming that is online only.

For some reason, Toronto seems to produce an extraordinary number of good webcomics artists, so this webcomics panel, scheduled for April 7, should be really interesting.

Speaking of Toronto artists, Michael May reviews Karl Kerschl’s webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher at Robot6.

New webcomic alert: Porterhouse, a gag strip about an aspiring comics creator by Tom Torre and Dr. McNinja inker Kent Archer. (Hat tip: ComixTalk.)

OK, we’re a bit late with this news, but Blue Sky reached its 500th installment in February. Congratulations to creator Jacob Bond.

ICv2 has a bit more on that Sony digital comics system for the PSP.

Webcomics.com had a really nice relaunch under the new owners, with some well written, useful articles, and then it sort of disappeared, due to problems with their web host. Now they’re back, sort of, although their RSS feed stopped working in my reader and I had to cancel and resubscribe. And they are looking for new content, so if you want to share your learning experiences with other creators, here’s some info on submitting a story.

El Santo has a nice review up of Dawn of Time at The Webcomic Overlook.

At Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Ada Price takes a critical look at reading comics on the Kindle. Despite the imperfections of the platform, publishers are taking it seriously as the next step in the long march to digital distribution. In other platform news, Slippery Brick notes that Sony is working on downloadable comics for the PSP.

Kevin Church is posting brief takes on webcomics by Twitter users at his blog, BeaucoupKevin(dot)com.

Here’s a new comic that’s worth a look: Model Behaviour, a manga-style comic about a shallow ladies man who happens to work in the fashion industry and becomes obsessed with a model. It’s a light comedy, and you can sort of see what’s coming with the latest twist, but it’s a fun read.

The sixth print volume of Dandy and Company is now available from Lulu.com.

Cory Doctorow has high praise for the print edition of Get Your War On at Boing Boing.

At ComicMix, Marc Alan Fishman recommends that you read Rogue Robot.

Stuck at your desk? Mari Kurisato lists three webcomics that are safe for work.

Thank you, Scott McCloud, for saying what needed to be said:

The page designs of most long form webcomics suck donkey dick. Good artists and writers—including some of my favorite cartoonists in the world—force readers to sroll, then click, then read, then scroll, then read, then click, then scroll again for no other reason than a stubborn belief that all comics pages have to be taller than wide, and that all web pages need a metric ton of blinking crap at the top to work.

T Campbell checks in in comments to defend his use of vertical pages, but I remain unconvinced. As Scott says in his response, scrolling is OK and clicking is OK, but the click-then-scroll required for every page is distracting and annoying.

Greg Hatcher has a lengthy but very readable essay up at Comics Should Be Good that considers paper vs. digital comics in terms of both the creator’s economics picture and the reader’s experience. With pictures of his own collection, it’s well worth a click.

The Canadian magazine Mcleans has a nice profile of Kate Beaton, whose loosely drawn comics make history fun. (Via Blog@Newsarama.)

Also at Blog@, Kyle Latino and Lee Cherolis have brief reviews of White Ninja and Kukuburi.

Here’s a nice bit of niche marketing for you: BikeRadar.com interviews Rick Smith about his bicycle-themed webcomic Yehuda Moon. (Via Journalista.)

Space oddity: Japanese sci-fi manga creator Leiji Matsumoto’s latest work, Out of Galaxy Koshika, will be distributed digitally via the Wii Shopping Channel. Readers will pay 500 Wii points for the first chapter and 200 for subsequent chapters. The manga is being published only in Japan for the moment but the online version includes an English translation; no word yet of any print version.

Here’s your freebie of the day: vol. 3 of Oddly Normal: Fignation Times, which the publishers have kindly made available online. (Found via Sean Kleefeld.)