About CSSquirrel

CSSquirrel explores the issues and absurdity of the world of web design through the medium of a blog, comics and a weekly podcast. With topics ranging from the HTML5 authoring process to Yahoo’s repeated axing of websites, from the pain of supporting legacy browsers to the annoyance of vendor-specific fan boys, the Squirrel is there to poke fun and occasionally say something smart-sounding.

This site is the love child of Kyle Weems, a web developer and award winning cartoonist that lives in Bellingham, WA. It’s been operating since 2008 ever since its first comic featuring the theft of Andy Clarke’s underpants.

About Kyle Weems

I am an award winning cartoonist* as well as a developer at Offroadcode Limited, based out of Huddersfield, UK.

I was born in Redding, CA in 1977 only nineteen minutes after my twin brother. He’s right-handed, I’m left-handed. He has a goatee, so by Star Trek rules, he’s the evil twin.

CSSquirrel is my third comic strip. The first one was Edgar Eagle, which ran in my high school newspaper (the Eagle Examiner) from 1991 to 1995. The second one, Nervillsaga, is a fantasy comedy comic that’s been on an extended hiatus since 2006.

I have a great script for a TV pilot for a buddy cop series called Beep and the Squirrel, but Ethan Marcotte won’t return my calls.

Past Events, Press and Other Cool Things

June 2012 - The Weekly Chat Episode #10: I was invited to participate in Jeff and Matt’s weekly podcast, where we discussed WWDC and making money on the Internet.

May 2011 - Web Directions Unplugged: I was honored to be invited to participate in this mobile-oriented web design conference as the Cartoonist in Residence, where I feverishly produced thirteen comics capturing the wisdom and insanity of its speakers.

May 2010 - Unmatchedstyle Interview: I’m pinned down and asked about my thoughts and inspiration for design, and accidentally let slip my love of Enya for the public record.

January 2010 - SitePoint Podcast #44 “HTML5 is a (Beautiful) Mess”: I joined Kevin Yank of SitePoint, Bruce Lawson of Opera and SitePoint author Ian Lloyd in a discussion on HTML5′s recent messy politics, and whether that was negatively impacting the standard.

December 2009 - Refresh Bellingham Presentation: I spoke at Refresh Bellingham in a presentation entitled “The Ghosts of Web Standards Present: CSS, HTML5 and Mobile”.

August 2009 - An Event Apart Interview: I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the awesome Eric Meyer over at An Event Apart. It was a lot of fun.

Comics, Speaking & Developing

If by chance you’re looking for a speaker for your conference or event, or seeking some Squirrel-related comic art for a project, I’m probably both very interested and available. Please contact me via any of the methods below.

Contact Kyle

Best Method: Tweet me. This is the best method to get a hold of me, as I’ll see your message within a minute or two unless I’m asleep. If you have Twitter just click the link and send me a shout. I’ll be able to respond back quickly and can send you other contact information if need be to extend the conversation.

Alternative Method: Click here to send me an email. It’s likely that I won’t respond nearly as quickly as I would to a Twitter message. I don’t get push notifications for my inbox and it’s not my communication medium of choice. I only check it at the office, so an email sent over the weekend won’t likely be seen for at least a couple days.

*Second Place for Newspaper Comic in the Shasta County High School Journalism Meet in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Hey, they’re still awards. I didn’t say they were big ones.