Big news: Shooting War the exclusive SMITH webcomic in 2006 will become Shooting War the book in 2007. Warner Books has signed up writer Anthony Lappé and artist Dan Goldman to create the Shooting War book (hardcover—rare for this sort of thing), which will be the first offering in the big fancy pub house’s new graphic novel division. The book will include most of the stuff you’ve been reading here for the last few months, plus a lot more new material (or at least until the hardest-working artist in Brooklyn collapses and begs for mercy). In a story from Publisher’s Weekly on all this, Warner Book editor Jaime Levine says our adventures of Jimmy Burns, the vblogger hipster who wants to save the world, will be aimed at the same audience as Jon Stewart’s America: The Book. Sold!

On a personal note, Anthony and Dan have been inspiring to work with and watch create this webcomic. It’s been wild seeing a community come out of nowhere, and feeling the love from hundreds of bloggers and media spots who dug what we’re up to. Jeff Cranmer has copyedited nearly every word of Shooting War, agent Ian Kleinart got the boys a cool deal from Warner, and Jeff Newelt has contributed both to the creative flow of the project and evangelized the gospel of Shooting War to anyone and everyone who crossed his furry path, online and off. Tim Barkow, my partner in SMITH, created the site without much time or help from anyone (and lots of demands from everyone), and Jimmy Raskin from Indelible made us one bad-ass video for one low, low price.

I would also like to thank God, Halle Berry, and Julian Dibbell—you all know why.

Meanwhile, if you like us, Digg us by registering and voting for Shooting War here—it helps immensely.

Chapter 10 goes live next week.