Hello.
I guess we’re all figuring out how to carve our own little section of the digital space—whether that’s advocating for bringing back blogs or just nuking our online presence all together!
I turned forty last year and would be lying if I didn’t say I day dream fondly about a time with no cell phones, when print media and television commercials were the only way to figure out which band was coming to town or what movies were headed to theaters. Sometimes, limitations are nice. That’s not to say I don’t love what the digital space has brought us—new people, a view into different cultures, deeper knowledge and sharing of that knowledge, opportunities to purchase and partake in people and companies you would never have known, hell probably all of my financial intake working as a freelance designer! But…
Everything changes.
All the time.
Anyway… this little newsletter thingy is me carving out a section of the digital pie. I’m gonna try to do this once a month. I’d like to attempt a deep-dive into a creative project or subject matter of mine followed up by the anything relevant that happened last month as well as the things I loved or discovered the last month.
Easy peasy.
Dilfest.
My brother had a graduation party in the year of 2007. He and a buddy of his built a dodgeball arena out of construction fence and random poles they found. They gathered up eight or so volleyballs and we played dodgeball in my parents back yard all day. It was a great day and arguably the greatest graduation party of all time.
The next year, I was in college driving the Zamboni at the Kent State ice arena, and started thinking… Why would we only have a party like that once? Why couldn’t we do it every year?
So, my co-workers and I came up with the idea to throw a yearly party like my brother had. We would play dodgeball (and in later years adding ping pong, volleyball, basketball, badminton, and tug-of-war to the list). But the sports had to be competitive—so a tournament was born!
Photo by Ed Blankenship
We also needed to feed everyone (it was an all day and night event, by god!) so we made the party a pot-luck and encouraged everyone to bring a dish to share. We also had the idea to roast a pig… I’m not sure where that idea came from but with the help of a buddy (whose dad and uncle got super drunk one night and built a pig roaster from an old oil tank) we got the pig roast aspect in there as well.
The thing I loved about my brother’s graduation party was that people took the partying and the game of dodgeball equally serious. So, one big rule we implemented into our party (which is admittedly a weird selling point for college students) was that there would be NO alcohol.
No alcohol?
At a college party?
Yep.
Now, I myself don’t drink. Never have. (People to this day still think I’m lying about that). But that’s not why we didn’t allow alcohol… I don’t care if people drink responsibly with their friends… I just didn’t want alcohol to interfere with the sports. Remember… the partying had to balance the competition. I wanted our guests/participants to be at their mental and physical best. So, no alcohol.
I’m also the kind of designer that can’t stop designing. I look at everything as a design project. Going to a cabin for the weekend with friends? I’m making a flyer. Have a burnt CD mix tape lying around? I’m making album art. Playing football on Thanksgiving? I’m making a poster for it. Dilfest was a huge opportunity for me as a designer to have a lot of fun with no outside control and a fun demographic (college kids) to be funny and push boundaries.
I spent incredible amounts of downtime at the ice arena drawing flyers with pen on copy paper. A lot of the flyers featured unflattering drawings of myself being eaten by pigs or getting decapitated by dodgeballs. They made me and my co-workers laugh and that was the important part.
The designs didn’t stop there. Misty (my wife and creative partner in crime) were getting into screen printing, so, we introduced championship t-shirts the winner of the tournaments would get as well as regular yearly t-shirts someone could pre-order for a measly five bucks. (We also ended up making hats, tank tops, baseball tees, and bandana masks). The apparel was such a hit that one Dilfest guest even started making his own bootleg shirts (arguably better than mine - see below). We went as far as filming making commercials and hype videos.
One key highlight of the Dilfest shirts, my favorite design was the pig face front with the little pig b-hole that lines up perfectly on the back. :)
Above photos by Ed Blankenship
Dilfest made it ten years with plenty of memorable moments—shaving heads, split webbing between fingers, busted collarbones, slip and slides, the mud year, the 100 degree year, giant bonfires, good food, and mostly a lot of people having a really good time.
We decided to call it quits on year 10. We had our fun and the number ten is a nice number to end things on. From time to time, people ask if we’re going to do another one. I’m always tempted. I would love to get back in there and smash some balls on people, get smashed. But here’s the thing… we didn’t allow alcohol because we wanted everyone focused on partying and sports. Now, at the ripe old age of forty, there is a new problem… CHILDREN. I don’t want your damn kids at my party. This is a party for ME! It’s a selfish directive, I know, but it’s a lot of work and I’m around my kids all day I don’t want to have to be around your kids all day. I want to play sports, and eat good food, and say bad words, talk shit, and draw vulgar, gory pictures of pigs eating my face off OR dominatrix pigs.
I’ve seen enough TV shows that have a wonderful first season that could just stop there but are tempted to go on because of ratings, money, etc. They’re never good. I’d rather have the Dilfest legacy live on in glory in our memories than tarnish it with the footprints of children and distracted parents.
So, what was the point of focusing on Dilfest for this sub stack? I don’t know. I’m sure there’s some deep meaning about not beating a dead horse, nostalgia, being old, letting things go… Or maybe there’s something to be said about creating something just for fun. Maybe I just miss the community it brought?
It’s probably the community.
Isn’t it always?
Mud Year Photo by Ed Blankenship
Making Stuff.
SOULMATES
The biggest news for January… I got to announce my YA graphic novel, Soulmates, that I’ve been working on for the last two or three years (it’s actually taken me eight years to get this story to this point but maybe that’s for another long post).
Soulmates comes out in Spring 2026 and follows Kit and Emma on their journey of reconnecting after years apart and dealing with some supernatural stuff.
ALICE ADAMS
I also finished up an illustration/cover design for the book Alice Adams that Belt Publishing is putting out as part of their Revival Series. I love the opportunity to work traditional so was excited to bust out some ink and brush and paint some flowers in the sketchbook.
PANTONE POSTCARDS
I’m still going strong doing my Pantone Postcards every now and then. I mail these suckers out for free to anyone who wants them (as long as they claim them first).
HEAD TURNS
I also got the inspiration from my colleague to do a little head spin animation. This was made in procreate. Just for fun. I did make it with poor dimensions… live and learn, I suppose.
Sharing Stuff.
TUNES
I can’t stop listening to death metal. I just can’t. I like all genres of music (techno, hip-hop, punk, rock, indie, folk, you name it… actually I do hate AC/DC for some reason though). But in January it was non-stop heaviness. NAILS new album “Every Bridge Burning” and NAPALM DEATH’s album “Time Waits for No Slave” have been on constant rotation in the van.
WATCHING
I’m trying to film another movie this summer. TRYING being the key word. I’ve succeeded at this once (The Disposal of Dead Ned) but failed the last two times I’ve tried. Making movies is very, very difficult. Anyway… part of my process is finding “mentor movies”. These aren’t comps per se… For instance, I’m trying to do a zombie movie, so, why in the hell would I be re-watching one of the greatest movies, MOONLIGHT? Because it feels real. Because it’s close. Because they captured the essence of what they were shooting. MOONLIGHT is a brilliant movie on a million different levels (many I don’t have the knowledge or capacity to speak on) but what I do know is that if I could get my movie to feel even remotely close to as natural as the way Moonlight makes its characters and settings feel… I will have achieved something. So, I’m studying—camera movements, color, blocking, pacing.
READING
I’ve also been trying to keep up and keep grounded to the world, and Sarah Kendzior’s book They Knew and her sub-stack have been… sobering, enlightening, beautiful, and poignant all at once.
Misty’s debut novel, Falling Like Leaves, has a cover and is now available for pre-order. She busted her ass on this one and it’s super exciting seeing it come to life and get love from mega-authors like Lynn Painter. (I did not draw her cover, it was beautifully illustrated by Amber Day (VISBII)).
See ya!
SOCIALS
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