As is the case with any "you had to have been there" situations, The Band Adventures, to put it simply, were a series of daily episodic fiction stories featuring the members of the Model High School Band, written by the author who would go by the name of JLK. To word this description another way, The Band Adventures were a daily soap opera starring the band members. Each day brought another one page story that was read and passed around band class during practice, usually subtly and without Mr. Stephens noticing, although on more than one occasion there was a disruption in the rehearsal process because someone was too engrossed in the latest episode and missed their cue.

JLK, author of other fine band-related stories including "April 1985: The Band Trip to Chicago (What Really Happened)" and the four-volume "The Band Massacres" series, has been writing (and, in some cases, drawing) stories featuring fellow classmates ever since first grade? Why stories featuring classmates? As JLK once explained it, "by using friends and other people in the class, the stories did not have to focus on characterization, and more time could be spent on actual story and events. Since you already know who these people are, and how they relate to each other, then that assumption is already in place and time is not spent on explaining these things. As a result, you already have a built-in audience for the stories." Indeed, the majority of JLK's fictional output while at Model Laboratory School are almost entirely devoid of any characterization whatsoever, making them virtually indecipherable to anyone who DOESN'T already know the characters involved. In fact, to some limited extent, The Band Adventures relied on already-established relationships between band members and each other, and storylines emerged from these real-life relationships, such as romantic entanglements and certain friendships. As for the "built-in audience," using members of the band was perfect, as here was a centralized cast of characters who gathered together once a day; nothing could be better than having your prospective audience available at the same time every day!

Prior to The Band Adventures, JLK had spent over two years on a series of novels based on the exploits of fellow classmate Andy Campbell and their friends. The highly-fantasized "Adventures of Andy Campbell" series featured the gang venturing into the steam tunnels underneath the school while at the same time battling against the forces of the terrorist group known as the G.G.G. The series was probably 5% steeped in reality and 95% swiped from science fiction tales and Dungeons & Dragons adventures. The series remained somewhat popular among the admittedly small audience that the stories were targeted. However, Campbell was held back a grade due to assorted complications, and JLK lost an audience upon entering high school. It wasn't until his sophomore year, and his friends from one grade below during middle school joined him, that his new audience was in place.

On November 19, 1984, JLK debuted "The Great Band Hawaiian Adventure!" a 23-episode story that lasted until the end of the semester in December. The series, mostly cribbed from an earlier JLK story from the Andy Campbell series that no one ever read, featured the band members going on a trip to Hawaii and running amiss with the terrorist group D.H.S. (again with the terrorist organizations and their three-letter names). While initially distributed to a small core group of readers, namely JLK's friends (Shay Quillen and Josh Meckler, who had starring roles in the story), readership eventually expanded to include all of the band members, as the tradition of passing around that day's episode began to become a daily ritual in band class. The story ended with the defeat of D.H.S. and the band members returning home in triumph. The question still lingered, however: What happens next?

JLK followed up that series with "The Band's Adventures in Japan and Korea!," which ran from January to May of 1985. Again, this story was also largely taken from a mostly unread "Adventures of Andy Campbell" story, and took the band on a trip to Korea and Japan, where they spent the entire time dodging retaliatory attacks by D.H.S. and performing concerts in assorted locations throughout the two Asian countries. Response to this series was mixed; while the thrill of seeing their names in print allowed the series to coast on its own steam throughout the semester, readers began to tire of the extremely fantastic elements (namely the terrorists, and later, something about a "mystical golden lava" that came out of Mt. Fuji during an attempted ritual sacrifice of Sarah Warner) and the fact that the series did not entirely reflect the relationships between the characters in the real world.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, JLK launched "The Band Adventures 1985!" at the start of the next school year, in August of 1985. Keeping the band members grounded in the United States, the series began by taking a group of band members to Chicago, Illinois, mirroring the events that took place during the band's real-life trip to Chicago in April, 1985. Of course, these were the band ADVENTURES, and it wasn't too long before the terrorists of D.H.S. showed up yet again, engaging the band in yet another conflict for world domination. The band members came back from Chicago and the series continued, chronologically, in the fall of 1985. Real-life situations, such as trips to Lancaster for the Garrad County Tobacco Festival, were bracketed with entirely fictitious situations, such as the D.H.S. attempt to hijack a shipment of nerve gas that would lead a group of band members to Florida to stop the terrorists, the introduction of evil clone versions of the band members ("evil" because they were D.H.S. agents) and a storyline in which a hospitalized Mr. Stephens turns over training of the band to his heretofore-unmentioned twin brother, Herman, who subjects the band members to boot camp-style drills in an attempt to improve their marching abilities (a storyline which, for the most part, was completely devoid of any terrorist battles and is remembered as being probably the most "realistic" moment of the series). The series took a break for the holidays in December with JLK's greatest and most illogical cliffhanger ever, in which D.H.S. uses the stolen nerve gas to disrupt fault lines in the Atlantic Ocean, creating an island in the middle of the United States from where they establish their headquarters, and causing worldwide havoc and destruction in the process. "The Band Adventures 1985!" continued into 1986 with the most fantastic and utterly unrealistic adventure yet, as band members travel around the globe in an attempt to stop D.H.S. amid worldwide catastrophe, and the whole story comes to an abrupt resolution with a solution crudely swiped from "Superman: The Movie," in which the earth revolves backwards on its axis and everything returns to normal, and the storyline from the past three months is essentially forgotten. An exhilarating whirlwind adventure, this storyline most certainly was not.

The series ended just before Spring Break that year, and the following week brought the launching of "The Band Adventures 1986!," in which JLK promised to completely cut out the fantasy and science fiction elements, as well as D.H.S., and focus more on the band and the band members themselves. "The Band Adventures 1986!" also began with a first for the series: a guest writer. Longtime reader Josh Meckler had expressed an interest in doing something with the series, and the first five episodes were written by Meckler, who introduced a NEW terrorist group to the Band Adventures universe: W.W.D., which stood for World Wide Destruction, who were a meaner and nastier version of D.H.S. In fact, W.W.D.'s first shots across the bow were to blind Dawn Quillen and kill off Jeff Hoagland (oddly enough, a trombone player with Meckler). The series progressed from March to May (until the end of the school year) and culminated in a gigantic battle involving the band members, the F.B.I. and W.W.D. as they liberated Sandusky, Ohio from the mental control of D.H.S. (whose main headquarters were located under Danbury High School, a plot point that JLK had in mind ever since the first series began). For the most part, D.H.S. was pretty much wiped out, W.W.D. disappeared, and the average episode consisted of five pages a day during the last week of school. The school year couldn't end without a cliffhanger, and JLK did not disappoint (or maybe he did, depending on your point of view): D.H.S. mad scientist Dr. Hamilton (who later turned out to be Keith Hartman's long lost father, and then he really wasn't) activated a sonic transmitter in Peggy Lin's vocal chords that would cause ... uhm ... really bad things to happen. Something like that.

"The Band Adventures 1986!" continued in the fall semester of 1986 with the first five episodes guest written by Shay Quillen, who, like Meckler before him, was given free rein to do whatever he wanted with the series. Quillen promptly ended the cliffhanger by having Joe Ballew and Denny French deflect the sonic beam emanating from Peggy's mouth so that it didn't destroy the world, but instead it struck and killed Aaron Francis. Following this brief bit of sci-fi ridiculousness, Quillen proceeded to write a week of what many considered to be the most entertaining episode of the Band Adventures to date, in which wacky antics happened at a party at Sarah Warner's house, Carla Gover was kidnapped and sent a secret message through a photograph of her bowl of Lucky Charms cereal, and Jimmy Kwak accidentally ran over and killed the Model Lab School gym teacher. After Quillen's run on the series (followed by a week of episodes written by some washed-up hack named Larry O. Grand), JLK returned and brought back the insanely improbable storylines that most people who read The Band Adventures had already grown accustomed to, including the band members battles against a colorful biker gang of assassins sent by W.W.D. (whose mannerisms and descriptions were most assuredly swiped from the 1980s "G.I. Joe" cartoon) and a very long storyline, which extended into the next series, "The Band Adventures 1987!," that featured Shay Quillen on the run for a murder he didn't commit and an old-fashioned Italian-style gang war waged on the streets of Richmond.

By this point in time, an "episode" of The Band Adventures would sometimes run up to ten pages in length. The actual episode for the day, however, would consist of two pages at the most. The additional pages were occupied with what because affectionately known as "The Backup Pages," which often consisted of supplemental "limited series" as well as polls, surveys, contests, and other minutia concerning the activities of the band. In fact, at the height of "Backup Page Mania," the additional pages were more popular than the main story itself, with many readers simply skipping over the first two pages to get to the good stuff in the back.

Graduation from Model High School in May of 1987 did not necessarily mean the end of The Band Adventures as written by JLK. Much to everyone's surprise and excitement, JLK continued the series, although these were written at least two weeks in advance and distributed by Shay Quillen. "Return of the Band Adventures!" and "The Further Band Adventures!" continued the story through 1987, and 1988 brought "The Band Adventures 1988!" which continued the exploits of the band, this time versus the enigmatic DARKSTAR Corporation (not a terrorist group, although their actions were pretty much the same as D.H.S. and W.W.D. before them). In one of the more memorable incidents in this story, T.J. Mansfield, who had been killed off in "The Band Adventures 1987!" when he was tossed out of a plane (at 50,000 feet, no less), returned as a robotic cyborg.

When Quillen graduated in May of 1988, JLK continued the story for the 1988-1989 school year, with Willie Gump distributing the episodes. By now, however, there was a serious level of disconnect between JLK and the readers, as there were now characters that JLK did not know on a level that had existed with earlier band members, and even though the names were there, the actions did not necessarily match those of the characters that they were intended to represent. And so, the stories took a significant dive in quality, and when "The Band Adventures 1989!" wrapped in May of 1989, JLK decided it was time to end the series as everyone knew it.

However, while it was the end of the series as the band members in band class knew it, JLK continued to write, or, at the very least, plot out the adventures of the band members. In 1990, JLK wrote, but never published, "After the Band Adventures!," a planned 300 episode series (only 60 episodes were actually written) that took place, chronologically, three years later, in 1992, as the band members from the original series, now college graduates in an adult world, gathered together to face a threat from the past. There were plans for an additional series, "The Band Adventures: The Lost Years," which would cover the three year gap and tell what happened back at Model High School, but this series never got past the plotting stage.

In 1997, JLK teamed up with some equally incomprehensible writer named Larry O. Grand to begin work on what was planned to be the final series in the Band Adventures canon, a series that would be published under the banner of "Band Adventures 2000!" The series, conceived of a run of five volumes, would, first and foremost, feature a rewriting of Band Adventures history, explaining in the first few paragraphs that what people had read, up until this point, were really stories written WITHIN the Band Adventures universe, and that what really happened was slightly closer to reality as we know it. This was more of an attempt to retell the original stories within a "realistic," modern frame as well as an attempt to revitalize the old series and keep the good ideas while ignoring all of the really bad ones. D.H.S. and W.W.D. would still be there, but with severely reduced roles (the obvious question being "WHY would an international terrorist organization spend all of their time and resources trying to kill off members of a high school band, and why were they so inept at doing so?"). Also, a lot of the gratuitous deaths would be undone, while setting the stage for the grand ending to the saga that JLK had envisioned years ago.

"Back at the very beginning, I had an idea of how the series would end." said JLK of the new series, back in 1999, "Granted, that idea has undergone many modifications since then, but the core idea still remains, and I still intend to someday write that particular story." While "Band Adventures 2000" remains mostly unwritten, it is believed that it will be finished some day, so we really can't reveal the ending right now ... although we can reveal that the plot involves a big revelation as to WHY the terrorist groups kept attacking the band, and that one major member of the band was, in fact, part of the terrorist plot the whole time.

There exists a considerable amount of doubt as to whether or not these stories will ever be written. Not because of time constraints or whether or not JLK will actually get around to doing it; there is the consideration of the characters themselves. If the stories are written, it is highly unlikely that any of the original names will be used, for the very reason that obtaining permission for the use of the names and likenesses are a legalistic nightmare. Additionally, the environment for these stories has completely changed as the face of the United States has also been irrevocably changed after the events of Columbine High School. Consider this: The Band Adventures oftentimes featured brutal and violent attacks on the students of the high school. Fellow band members were killed in these pages. While those stories were read and enjoyed and laughed back in the 80s, just imagine what would happen if a student wrote these stories and passed them around in the schools of today? That student would immediately be jailed, their computer seized, and psychiatric experts would be discussing the situation on the 24 hour cable news channels. Of course, we know for a fact that, back then, even though JLK wrote these stories, he never came into the school, guns blazing, re-enacting the situations that he created. But would we be so sure today?

The Band Adventures were a daily source of entertainment to a certain group of individuals, a chronicle of their lives taking place in another world, one that they could only imagine and visit for a few brief minutes a day. Like a good soap opera, The Band Adventures were an escape from reality, except that in the case of its audience, the band members, it was their own escape, a personalized experience for themselves and no one else. It is something that was unique for its time, and will never be done ever again. And perhaps that is how we should remember those pages, passed around under Mr. Stephens' nose or posted on the bulletin board, as just another facet of band class from 1984 to 1989.

The very first episode of The Band Adventures, The Great Band Hawaiian Adventure! #1, dated November 19, 1984.

The second episode into the fall semester of 1986, The Band Adventures 1986! #41, dated August 20, 1986. Guest written by Shay Quillen, whose episodes were always some of the most popular, mainly because they completely ignored JLK's current storylines and went off on their own wacky tangents.

Larry O. Grand's Seven Most Ridiculous and Improbable Band Adventures Plotlines

7. Peggy Lin is Weird Because of D.H.S. Brainwashing
In yet another attempt to integrate real-life situations into the Band Adventures, we have the example of Peggy Lin's actions during the Model band trip to Monroe, Michigan. In the real world and the Band Adventures universe, Peggy went a little wacky on the slide at the McDonald's, and went wading in Lake Michigan in freezing cold weather. What could possibly explain this? In our world - perhaps Peggy is a little odd to begin with, or maybe we have a teenage girl out on her own and having a little fun? In the Band Adventures world - oh, it's the implants D.H.S. placed on her brain that were malfunctioning, causing her mind to slightly short circuit. Yeah, that explanation makes a LOT more sense.

6. Sebastian Odong, King of Africa
Compounding the unintentional racist overtones was the fact that this storyline was also some sort of way to work into the Band Adventures universe the fact that Sebastian Odong's nickname was "King." The revelation that the fact that he was a long-lost monarch of a small African nation was really a D.H.S. ruse was hardly a surprise, and yet, somehow, this storyline warranted a ten-part miniseries.

5. DHS Mountain
Really bad science fiction or adolescent comic book fantasy -- that was the basis from which this storyline could have been derived (in actuality, it was inspired from an issue of Marvel Comics' G.I. Joe). The plot involved DHS detonating a massive explosion at an area where the major Teutonic plates converged, resulting in a massive geologic disturbance and the creation of an enormous island in the middle of the continental United States, which DHS promptly moved in to, establishing a headquarters from which they proceeded to conquer the country. In the course of the story, the United States government toppled and the band members assisted in forming a rebellion to overthrow DHS. Of course, if The Band Adventures had any hope of continuing, the status quo would have to be re-established; in this case, quite forcibly, by a time travel mechanism ripped from "Superman: The Movie." A lame ending to an overall lame storyline.

4. Clone Wars
Clones have always been a fixture of science fiction, both good and bad. Their use in the Band Adventures borders between bad and really bad. The biggest crime was the use of a clone to bring back a deceased character ("it was my clone that really died!"), a ploy akin to the similar use of a long-lost twin sibling in soap operas. Let's just say that the use of clone characters over a year's worth of storylines was really not a good idea.

3. D.H.S. Science Will Save the World!
Anything that was scientifically impossible was explained to be the result of "D.H.S. Science," which is apparently light years ahead of any known science and is mostly responsible for achieving phenomena that violate THE BASIC LAWS OF PHYSICS. Just try telling that to homicidal obsessive terrorist organizations. Including the aforementioned clones, there was also the miraculous "synthro skin" that was the best restorative plastic surgery technique, even if it killed you after six months; a "golden lava" that, when the right person was sacrificed into it, would release a wave of energy so powerful that it could be harnessed to detonate a massive explosion at an area where the major Teutonic plates converged, resulting in a massive geologic disturbance and the creation of an enormous island in the middle of the continental United States (hmm, this sounds familiar); brainwashing on a global scale through various memory implants and subliminal signals; and a sonic transmitter implanted in one's vocal chords that, when activated, would activate the subliminal programming of millions of D.H.S. sleeper agents around the world, turning them all into , oh, I dunno, evil D.H.S. agents.

2. Denny French: Paraplegic Ninja
Denny is in an accident inadvertently caused by his best friend, Joe Ballew. Both of Denny's legs are amputated as a result. Denny harbors a great resentment towards Joe whom he blames for the accident. Somehow, this trauma activates years of secret ninja training that had been programmed into Denny's brain when he was but a child, and he returns to enact his revenge (killing some D.H.S. agents who are after Joe, since Joe is his and his alone to murder). But don't worry, Denny eventually gets his legs back (robotic D.H.S. legs, but hey, whatever works) and forgives his friend, and status quo is restored.

1. The Luggage Cart Chase Sequence from "The Band's Adventures in Japan and Korea!"
The band members arrive in South Korea, a country already paranoid about terrorism and is constantly on some level of military alert. Suddenly, D.H.S. agents emerge from the plane, guns a-blazing! Trapped in the crossfire are Shay Quillen, Josh Meckler, and Jimmy Kwak, who, avoiding the hail of bullets, grab a luggage cart, throw their stuff on it, grab ahold of the sides, and push off, steering this NON-MOTORIZED cart through the airport, through immigration and customs and baggage claim (and dozens of military personnel who maintain these checkpoints), and then out of the airport and ONTO THE STREET, all the while being chased by the same D.H.S. agents who have somehow managed to get past the exact same obstacles, and then through the streets of Seoul, still on the luggage cart, all the way to their hotel, where they crash into the lobby at the same time that the other band members are arriving. Yeah, completely plausible! You would have thought that, at the very least, the extremely paranoid South Korean government soldiers would have shot and immobilized somebody, much less a luggage cart driven by three American teenagers. And to think, this sequence was covered in FIVE EPISODES.