Zen Bassmasters: The Next Generation

Several months ago, I made an excuse for the lack of updates here. The excuse was that I have been working on a top-secret project with a friend that was going to take the Zen Bassmasters geocaching adventures into a totally different type of media.

Considering how long it's been between that post and this one, I'm sure most of you have given up on me. Oh, ye of little faith... While we're not completely ready to begin the next chapter in the Zen Bassmasters Experience, we're close. Very, very close.

So, for the readers who have stuck with me through the inactive period, I'm giving you the first look at the new venture.

Meet "Zen Bassmaster Adventures."

Yep, the Zen Bassmasters have now gone graphical. As far as we've been able to tell, we are the first geocaching webcomic anywhere.

Zen Bassmasters Adventures is a two-man operation. I am doing the writing and anyone who has read the blog will recognize some of the capers in the comic as very familiar. But the real talent here, as evidenced above, is the other half of this team, Brian Bullock. He's Mad Mike's nephew and some of you may remember him as an occasional guest star in the blog.

For right now, we're anticipating a once weekly update schedule. I have hopes for that to increase but Brian has, quite unreasonably in my opinion, insisted that he be allowed time in his week to work, sleep, eat, and socialize. The nerve of some people.

We're still working out the details of where the comic will be posted. Right now we're leaning toward Comics Genesis but that's not decided. I hope we'll have that decided in the next two to four weeks (I'm going to be out of town a lot in the next month so getting together to decide these things has been difficult) and I promise you that this will be the very first place I'll come to give everyone the URL. Keep checking in. I promise you Brian's art is worth it.

While I'm sure this doesn't make up for weeks of inactivity and neglect of my readership, I hope it helps soften the blow. I hope some of you will shoot me a comment and let me know what you think of the first comic. It's a work in progress.

Until next time, happy caching.

Saying Goodbye to a Bassmaster...

It is with great sadness that I have to report to you the death of a founding member of the Zen Bassmasters.

Gryphon's Van, affectionately known as the "Bassmobile" to ZB fans everywhere, perished today at the Farrar Vehicle Clinic after a short battle with cancer of the transmission. After collapsing just outside of Petersburg yesterday afternoon, the Bassmobile was rushed to the Clinic and placed on life support. After doctors diagnosed her, it was decided that only a transmission replacement could save her and Gryphon made the decision to take her off life support.

"She was the most underappreciated member of this team," Gryphon was quoted today as saying. "She faithfully carried five people whose combined weight went well over 1400 lbs all over creation for over a year. Her suspension suffered a lot at the end."

Indeed, one of the more recognizable and crowd-pleasing portions of the Zen Bassmasters' arrival at any geocaching event was the ritual negotiation of the speed bumps. Gryphon reminisces, "I used to get stopped by kids who thought it was cool that we lowered the minivan. I had to tell them it was just from all the weight."

Perhaps the Bassmobile's most lasting legacy was the invention of the "Semi-Circular Course Correction", and her execution of it is still considered by experts to be the most perfect form of this maneuver. "It was like second nature to her. She just seemed to want to turn around. It was like she was born to it."

RIP
2000 Plymouth Grand Voyager
aka "The Bassmobile"
b. May 2003, 42k miles
d. June 2007, 169k miles
At One with the Bait...