[Xerexes: Wizard has an interview with Rich on this – turns out that Ted Rall (who is scouting talent for United) was key to this deal.]

Through a new syndication deal with United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (aka United Media), R Stevens' webcomic Diesel Sweeties will begin running in newspapers starting on January 8, 2007. Here's how Stevens made the announcement on his site…

The Fourth Estate in the Fifth Dimension

09/04/2006 – 8:12 PM

I've been kind of busy and falling behind on communicating with people this summer. Hopefully, you will accept my excuse! Ladies and Gentlemen, SECRET PROJECT X:

Starting on January 8, 2007 Diesel Sweeties is going to be running in newspapers through United Feature Syndicate. These syndicated strips will also be showing up on comics.com, A.K.A. the best URL ever. Web-only and archived strips will still be here, same as always. We signed the papers a couple weeks ago and I'm still kind of shell-shocked. I'm working hard to finish the sample strips. The newspaper comics are going to be all-new strips with the same characters, seven days a week.

It's a pretty cool deal: I get to do newspaper comics, while still maintaining my own copyright, website and t-shirts. The best part for me is that there will still continue to be new comics here on the DS site! A big part of how I maintain my "sanity" is by staying up late writing comics and posting them the moment they're done. Continuing to have that flexibility in addition to working weeks in advance for syndication is really important to me and I'm extremely glad to still have it.

I'm psyched to get to do the one job I really wanted as a kid, while still maintaining my identity as web cartoonist. Throw in a pony and I'll have burned through all three wishes in one go.

I still get chills every time I think about making Sunday comics. I just finished my first two last week and it was … surreal. They were Sunday comics, but I got to write and draw them. Insane. I honestly never thought I'd ever have a chance to be in papers. You readers should make out pretty well, too. There'll be more comics to read and hopefully I'll grow as a writer by working in new formats. Your thoughts are welcome, as always.

Time to stop blathering and get back to work. I'll have more news to tell you soon, but right now I have to write some jokes, mail out some t-shirts and eventually get a few hours of sleep. Can ya digg it?