By MATT VINCENT
Editor and Writer for BASS/ESPN OUTDOORS
We’ve heard the clichés before. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Never put the cart before the horse.
In short, they're all worthwhile bits of advice. And as editor of BASS Times for the past 20 years, I always have tried to heed the warning. But then I met Chris Armstrong.
Chris and I began working piecemeal. I would assign him an illustration or two for a few articles here and there. Then I would send him the proofed copy and ask him to create a visual picture of what the writer was explaining with words. Chris was quick and he was accurate and the talent he possessed was obvious. Eventually, I began assigning articles based on the rough illustrations that Chris was faxing to me and this "bass ackwards" process was working so well it eventually became standard operating procedure. Soon, I would suggest an idea for Chris for an illustration even before assigning it to the writer. In short, we started working backwards from the normal editorial process.
After several years of this cart-before-the-horse process, and as I noticed an overall improvement in the content of the publication as a result, my confidence in his talent and judgment had grown significantly. And as a friendship grew out of this working relationship, Chris started sending me samples of his more zany and bizarre creations. That’s when I told him I’d like to be able to find a place for some of his wilder creations but I just didn’t see any opportunity for them inside a mainstream bass fishing publication.
Chris suggested we add a bizarre segment to BASS Times, a monthly humor story that would push the proverbial envelope. Irreverent. Politically incorrect. Basically wrong.
Unfortunately, I did not have the right guy to add the words. So I had no idea on how we could accomplish his suggestion. But I promised him I’d think about it.
Occasionally, the planets line up and the stars align, which is exactly what happened several weeks later.
On a writer’s junket to a bass fishing resort in Alabama, Don Wirth and I started talking about how to get him involved for my publication on a monthly basis. Wirth had written for me in the past but his stories had always been about mainstream bass fishing — boats, lures, fishing techniques, etc.
I’ve known Don for over 25 years and we share many of the same interests — good music, hard-core fishing and what some might call a disdain for the status quo. One evening over more than a few beers and some expensive tequila, I asked Don if he would consider writing a humor column for BASS Times. Obviously drunk and disoriented, he accepted the challenge.
So I called Armstrong when I returned to my office the next week and explained what I was looking for in terms of a collaborative effort between him and Don Wirth.
And the unholy union of two old hippies in a mainstream fishing publication was spawned.
The result has been exactly for what I had hoped. We’ve offended more than a few famous fishermen and have managed to ridicule the rest without directly offending anyone. Well, almost.
As you can see in the following samples from BASS Times, the dynamic duo of Wirth and Armstrong is not over yet. There’s still time to offend everyone. Without malice aforethought, of course.
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FOR WHAT'S IT'S WIRTH
Website Design by Ferne O'Quinn Photography by Don Burk
"How many illustrators could capture the subtleties of form and nuances of coloration of a largemouth bass or bird of prey, then turn around and render a convincing portrait of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson on acid? I only know of only one:
Chris Armstrong. This dude rocks!"
Don Wirth
Outdoor writer and part-time musician
Nashville, Tennessee
