The August ZudaWatch is in the can and on its way to the presses! (That’s right, Steve, correct? Presses?) So while you wait patiently to find out what we thought of this above-average crop, stop over at Comic Book Resources (proud new home of Digital Strips‘ own, Brigid Alverson) to partake of their monthly Q&A session with every Zuda contestant, cheekily titled “Zudist Colony”.

Zudist Colony: Talking to the August Zuda contestants (CBR)

The simple life: Corey Randolph has decided that having four webcomics on four websites was just too much maintenance, so he is consolidating: He is shutting down everything except the main site and putting Barkeater Lake, TOBY, Robot Satan and Greene With Envy on GoComics. He is also rebooting Greene With Envy and slashing prices in the online store. That’s the 411, but you should go read his whole blog post on the topic because it’s worth thinking about his reasoning—this is one of those cases where the standard webcomics model isn’t working, so he’s finding another way. (And it’s not that the comics aren’t good—go check ’em out. I’ll put them up against the funnies in my newspaper any day.)

But if you want to go in the other direction, DJ Coffman has a quick’n’easy tutorial on setting up your own website and hosting your own comics.

In other news, Bill Mitchel of CBR chats up Ryan North.

Brian Heater discusses Top Shelf’s webcomics initiative, Top Shelf 2.0, at AppScout.

Still looking for something to read? The public-spirited folks at Brainz.org have a list of 20 funny webcomics, many of which may already be famliar to you, and Cracked lists ten weird webcomics in The 5 Circles of Baffling Web Comic Hell.

One structural problem with webcomics is that most of them are released a page at a time, making it hard to follow a longer story. Two creators have recently changed their schedules to dole out their stories in bigger chunks: Derik Badman will be publishing a month’s worth of Things Change: The Metamorphoses Comic at the beginning of the month, rather than one page three times a week, and he is releasing PDF downloads of the early volumes to make reading the archives easier. (Via ComixTalk.) And Meredith Gran will update Octopus Pie whenever she has a big chunk of story for us, which means the schedule will now be somewhat irregular. (Via Fleen.)

Josh Neufeld talks about A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge with John Hogan at Graphic Novel Reporter, and Larry Cruz reviews the print edition at The Webcomic Overlook.

At Robot 6, JK Parkin talks to Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, creators of the Black Cherry Bombshells, about their road trip to San Diego and back.

And at Comic Book Resources, Shaun Manning talks to Dean Haspiel about ACT-I-VATE and the upcoming ACT-I-VATE Primer.

Do you want to contribute to the sum of all knowledge? A British student is doing a survey of readers of legal and bootleg digital comics, so click and contribute.

Kate Dacey reviews vol. 1 of Bayou, the print edition, at Good Comics for Kids.

Looking for something new to read on your summer vacation? Xaviar Xerxes recommends Trashed, Border Crossings, and Mister Crimson at ComixTalk.

Hearty congratulations to Phil and Kaija Foglio, who won a Hugo Award for best graphic story for vol. 8 of their Girl Genius series. Howard Tayler’s Schlock Mercenary was also nominated.

There’s a lot of good conversation about webcomics in the general case going on right now. Larry Cruz takes a look at Scott McCloud’s ten rules for webcomics, first laid down in 2000, to see how they have survived the test of time and technology. Olaf Solstrand has some tips for welcoming new readers who may join your story in the middle of the action. And Scott Kurtz ponders the question of whether artists should try to be businesspeople as well; be sure to read the lengthy comments thread on this one.

ACT-I-VATE moves to print with The ACT-I-VATE Primer.

Kelly Melcher interviews Danielle Corsetto, creator of Girls with Slingshots, at Fandomania.

Tom Gastall covers the Marvel Digital Comics & Beyond panel at San Diego for Comic Book Resources.

Laurel Maury looks at Tim Hamilton’s webcomic adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 for NPR.

Over at Robot 6, my contribution to our weekly What Are You Reading? column was all webcomics last week, with quick takes on Punch an’ Pie and the iPhone comic The Eternal City.

Recent reviews:

Tom Flinn on A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (ICv2)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on Bayou (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
asamisgirl on Goodbye Chains (The Yaoi Review)
Lukatraon on Gunnerkrigg Court (Big Shiny Robot)
Larry Cruz on Head Trip (The Webcomic Overlook)
Bart Croonenborghs on Menage a 3 (print edition) (Broken Frontier)

Comics by comiXology is the number one app in the iTunes store right now, and I spoke to comiXology CEO David Steinberger about what sets this one off from the others. I believe it’s the first to take advantage of in-app buying (so you buy all your comics from within the app, rather than having each one be a separate app), but beyond that, it allows you to locate the print edition in a nearby bricks-and-mortar store. The partnership with retailers is a new twist, and I’m interested to see how it will play out.

Kevin Hodgson test-drives the comiXology app at The Graphic Classroom, and Charlie Sorrel of Wired’s Gadget Lab kicks the tires as well.

The New York Times covers the boom in cell-phone manga in Japan. It’s still well under 10% of the manga market, according to the numbers cited in the article, but the growth rate is steep.

Owly is now available on the Kindle!

The Yaoi Review checks out some yaoi manga on the Kindle and finds the fonts are too small to be readable. This looks like a first-genration Kindle, though, so a later one might work better. TYR also presents a handy downloadable list of yaoi manga and novels available on the Kindle.

I’ve sat on this info for long enough, just waiting for creator Brock Heasley to announce yet another way to get The Superfogeys beamed straight to your cranium.

Collecting the first four chapters of The Superfogeys saga, the first trade collection of the critically-acclaimed webcomic is currently in pre-order mode. Twenty bones will net you the regular edition, while 25 will earn you the now-standard Artist Edition, complete with a custom sketch card featuring your favorite Superfogeys character. Nifty!

Here are some more of the features, borrowed from the Th3rd World store:

– An updated, running COMMENTARY on each and every page of the book below the strips and stories. With some surprises!

– All of the previously published BONUS STORIES: “Operation: Valhalla” “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension” “Cellmates”
The PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED bonus story “The Secret Origin of the Space Pig”

– FOREWORD written by [TOP SECRET!] and AFTERWORD written by the Th3rd World Head Honchos!

– DESIGNED by Michael DeVito and Jon Conkling (The same team that designed the sold-out “Stuff of Legend”)

– SKETCHES, UNSEEN ART, and MORE!

And as if that wasn’t enough to further Heasley’s all-star status in the world of comics, the second volume of The Superfogeys, featuring the second chapter and a never-before-seen-online tale, is now available in the iTunes App Store. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to reading quality strips like The Superfogeys on my iPad in the very near future.

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.