CSSquirrel A look at web development and web design by Kyle Weems

Today’s comic features the Squirrel, mentions the forthcoming An Event Apart: Seattle, and hints at the sobering difference between the spec for HTML5 and the reality of its adoption speed.

The comic is also the creation of the winner of my Dribbble invite give-away/AEA-theme guest comic contest, Miro Keller! Congrats, Miro! In addition to his comic filling the #59 spot for all eternity (or at least a year after I die and my hosting goes offline), he will also receive an invitation to Dribbble and will appear in a CSSquirrel comic this April!

I’m sure when interviewed on his success, he’ll declare his intent to go to Disneyland.

His comic won for a couple reasons. First, it showed the squirrel’s skeleton, which is no easy task. Secondly, it feels like the sort of thing I’d make a comic about, and was funny to boot. HTML5 is going to be awesome, I’m sure, but it’s not exactly to the point where we’re throwing Flash install discs into burn barrels. IE9 will be a great boon towards adopting those features, not because they’re first, but because so many people use their product… but a lot of people are -still- using IE6, even after its funeral.

So let us all remember, we may need a fallback plan for that lovely <video> tag for a while yet.

In addition to Miro’s great victory, there’s two other winners today. #2 in the contest is the entry of Ryan Parr. Warning, parents, he uses swears. #3 is from Mihai Petica. Congrats to both of you as well. You’ll be receiving Dribbble invites as well as appearing in a future CSSquirrel comic this April.

Let’s celebrate these heroes with a round of applause.

P.S.: I don’t know exactly what’s going on in Morten Gresseth’s entry, but despite its failure to mention AEA it was so darn odd that I just had to link it here. Does anybody know what this is referencing? Morten?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have three Dribbble invites to give away. I’m sure some of you have seen the various tweets, blog posts and comments about this community of sharing shots of what you’re working on (I know I’ve done my share of such messages). It is, in a word, a great place to share creative juices and get feedback from fellow web designers and other creative types.

I love it.

And I want to share.

To that end, I’ve devised a contest. One of the features of Dribbble is the “rebound”, using a basketball metaphor to describe making a shot (aka, image) that is a remix or inspired by a previous shot. There’s been a few really neat contests inside Dribbble to test this feature, with awesome results. In that spirit, I’ve created an incomplete comic that you can download here. Take this comic, mix it up and complete it. Alter it however you see fit, within the following guidelines:

1. Some of the original art must be present.

2. The three panels must still exist (aka, it fits the standard CSSquirrel strip frame).

3. The comic must involve An Event Apart: Seattle in some way. I’m heading to this awesome event soon, so the Squirrel should get his moment to enjoy the experience.

4. The Squirrel must be in the final product.

That’s it. Those are the only rules. Add in characters, alter backgrounds, create speech bubbles, do interpretive dance, whatever. Go, mix it up, then post it online somewhere (where I can get to it) and send a tweet to @cssquirrel or leave a comment to the post that links to the image. On Monday morning, I’ll review the submissions (along perhaps with fellow Mindfly peeps) and choose the top three comics. All three will receive Dribbble invites, and the #1 comic will appear as CSSquirrel #59! The top three will also appear in an April comic. I know, I know, I’m too generous.

Now, off you go! Your deadline is 8:00 am (PST) Monday, March 29.