The Art of Boy Scouts ½
Boy Scouts ½ is, mostly, a textual presentation. But that doesn't mean that, over the years, it hasn't had some artwork produced for it. On this page this artwork will be presented for your enjoyment!
The very first artwork was produced by Michael D. Quadrozzi. The blue tint on a couple of these? My sister learned the hard way not to use Windex to clean her scanner...
The very first artwork was produced by Michael D. Quadrozzi. The blue tint on a couple of these? My sister learned the hard way not to use Windex to clean her scanner...
Official Art by Michael D. Quadrozzi
Next up, a piece of fan art once received way back in the early days of Boy Scouts ½, sent in by someone named Matthew Hieggelke.
Fan Art by Matthew Hieggelke
Once upon a time, a chap by the name of Christopher Horton had suggested perhaps adapting Boy Scouts ½ into comic form. It never got farther then concept art. (Pity, as I'd still love to see a Boy Scouts ½ manga adaptation! Particularly if someone could draw it in that classic 80's Takahashi style.) But that concept art is presented for you below. Also included is a sketch I made, as reference for him, of the layout of the upper floor of the church that Troop 192 meets at.
Official Concept Art by Christopher Horton
I used to date a woman by the name of Jessica Pysz. And... well, whatever might have happened between us, I'd still have to say that she had talent in drawing. In addition to co-writing one of the stories, she also produced a number of pieces of art based on Boy Scouts ½. Overall, this is probably what I would consider the best art that has been produced for Boy Scouts ½.
Official Art by Jessi Pysz
Now we come up to art by none other then Perspectives creator Jason Bertovich! Here he portrays some of the characters from his award winning* spin-off series!
* Winner of the 2013 Matt Just Made This Up Award
* Winner of the 2013 Matt Just Made This Up Award
Perspectives Art
The next section is attempts to create Boy Scouts ½ characters in the video game The Sims 3. Not perfect... but not bad.
The Sims 3
Now of course, some of the characters and settings found within Boy Scouts ½ are based on people and places found in this strange thing called "reality," which presents an opportunity: Photographs! The following section is photography of some of the real life influences on Boy Scouts ½.
Photography of Boy Scouts ½
A Troop photo of Troop 192 circa 1996 (one year before Boy Scouts ½.) Notable individuals: Back row, fifth from left: Matthew Atanian. Back row, sixth from left: Dan Wellington (not in Troop 192, but making a guest appearance) holding his chicken, Boo. Second row down, second from left: Mike Quadrozzi. Third row down, sixth from the left: If "Aaron Abdowmassy" was a real person, this is what he might have looked like. Bottom row, fourth from left: Bill Hughes. Bottom row, fifth from left: Bill Gelinas. My goodness, was everyone so young back then...
Title Design
In this section, we will be taking a look at some of the title design work done for Boy Scouts ½. We'll mainly be looking at various series titles, and thus won't be looking at the few random individual stories (such as Boy Scouts ½, part 13 or the various Anime Deathmatch stories) that have for whatever reason received individualized title graphics.
Boy Scouts ½ title design has always taken a cue from the parent series. The first year's logo was pattered after the typeface used by Viz at the time on their first run of Ranma ½ graphic novels.
When it came time to start Boy Scouts ½ in Japan, a logo redesign was in order, and this time inspiration came from the design used on Japanese Ranma products. The "Boy Scouts" part is actually done using a font I have called "Powerpuff," based on the font used for the title of the show The Powerpuff Girls, and which I thought nicely emulated the balloonish look of the Japanese characters in the Ranma logo. For "in Japan," a font I have called "Orient" was used.
Someday, in the far distant future, if we ever get to the third (and final planned) year of Boy Scouts ½, perhaps a third redesign will be in order. I suppose such a redesign could be based on what is now the more common English language logo of Ranma ½.
(In the comparison pictures below, the Boy Scouts ½ logos are the property of Boy Scouts ½, but no ownership is implied over the accompanying images of Ranma ½, or of the basic typefaces that inspired the Boy Scouts ½ logos.)
Boy Scouts ½ title design has always taken a cue from the parent series. The first year's logo was pattered after the typeface used by Viz at the time on their first run of Ranma ½ graphic novels.
When it came time to start Boy Scouts ½ in Japan, a logo redesign was in order, and this time inspiration came from the design used on Japanese Ranma products. The "Boy Scouts" part is actually done using a font I have called "Powerpuff," based on the font used for the title of the show The Powerpuff Girls, and which I thought nicely emulated the balloonish look of the Japanese characters in the Ranma logo. For "in Japan," a font I have called "Orient" was used.
Someday, in the far distant future, if we ever get to the third (and final planned) year of Boy Scouts ½, perhaps a third redesign will be in order. I suppose such a redesign could be based on what is now the more common English language logo of Ranma ½.
(In the comparison pictures below, the Boy Scouts ½ logos are the property of Boy Scouts ½, but no ownership is implied over the accompanying images of Ranma ½, or of the basic typefaces that inspired the Boy Scouts ½ logos.)
When it comes to the spin-offs (actual or hopeful), Perspectives was the first, and because of this unfortunately the one that got the least logo love. For Perspectives, there is just the original Boy Scouts ½ logo with the words, "The Perspectives Series" superimposed over it, written in a font I must have thought looked good for it at the time, but sadly I no longer seem to have and thus cannot identify for you. And this logo is only used on the index page. On the story pages, the titles are presented in a plain typeface. I suspect this was in part because of the fact that the title of installments in the series past the first are in the style of, "Perspectives VI: A Christmas Perspective," rather then, "Perspectives part VI: A Christmas Perspective." Without the word "part" or something similar to separate the number from the series title, and thus place the number on the following line, it would have been too much effort to create a new graphic for each story to replace the number. (I do believe this is why Kenny's Laboratory was unnumbered, so as to just avoid this all together! Although that later came in handy when Jason wrote his Kenny's Lab story, which was set chronologically between two other already published ones.)
Speaking of Kenny's Laboratoy, in that case once again it is a somewhat simplistic effort - just a title created with whatever fonts I had at the time. The majority of it is just "Brush Script MT." The "bor" part was done in a different, more elaborate and fancier front. (This emulates the extra emphasis that syllable has, in story, whenever it is spoken.) Alas, much like with the Perspectives font, it is not one I seem to have any longer...
Below that, we have To Conquer the World, our newest spin-off. It was just a matter of me choosing a font I thought suited it, in this case one called "Vivaldi." Unlike past spin-offs, which have all been accompanied by variations on the original Boy Scouts ½ logo, as a (hopeful) spin-off that was started when Boy Scouts ½ in Japan was the main series being written, To Conquer the World is accompanied by a variation on in Japan's logo.
It was hoped that The Troop 180 Chronicles might develop into a third spin-off, which is why those have a distinct title font. In this case, it was based on the typeface used on the hulls of Federation starships. Why? Because why the heck not?
Finally, the black sheep of The Boy Scouts ½ Universe, a failed spin-off called The Outlast-the-Other-Guys Challenge, or Outlast for short. A pair of title graphics had been created for this, both taking the existing main title graphics of the time and incorporating the spin-off's title with them using a font I have called Stencil.
Speaking of Kenny's Laboratoy, in that case once again it is a somewhat simplistic effort - just a title created with whatever fonts I had at the time. The majority of it is just "Brush Script MT." The "bor" part was done in a different, more elaborate and fancier front. (This emulates the extra emphasis that syllable has, in story, whenever it is spoken.) Alas, much like with the Perspectives font, it is not one I seem to have any longer...
Below that, we have To Conquer the World, our newest spin-off. It was just a matter of me choosing a font I thought suited it, in this case one called "Vivaldi." Unlike past spin-offs, which have all been accompanied by variations on the original Boy Scouts ½ logo, as a (hopeful) spin-off that was started when Boy Scouts ½ in Japan was the main series being written, To Conquer the World is accompanied by a variation on in Japan's logo.
It was hoped that The Troop 180 Chronicles might develop into a third spin-off, which is why those have a distinct title font. In this case, it was based on the typeface used on the hulls of Federation starships. Why? Because why the heck not?
Finally, the black sheep of The Boy Scouts ½ Universe, a failed spin-off called The Outlast-the-Other-Guys Challenge, or Outlast for short. A pair of title graphics had been created for this, both taking the existing main title graphics of the time and incorporating the spin-off's title with them using a font I have called Stencil.
Since Boy Scouts ½ is loosely based on the real world, it stands to reason that if the real Matt would create a fan fiction universe crossing his reality over with an anime series he was a fan of, the fictional Matt might do the same! Of course, fictional Matt couldn't write Boy Scouts ½, as to him the world of Ranma ½ was reality! So instead, fictional Matt writes a series called Neon Genesis Boy Scouts.
To bring things deeper down the rabbit hole, the fictional Matt in that series would likely write his own fiction, but that one couldn't be based on Evangelion, or (since this isn't Martian Successor Nadesico, which seems to exist as fiction within that story's own fictional story of Gekiganger III) Ranma. So, what does the fictional Matt's fictional Matt write? (And does your head hurt yet?) He writes Boy Scouts Muyo!
And just because of "why the hell not?" the same story that revealed Boy Scouts Muyo! also made mention that somewhere, in yet another reality, Matthew Atanian must have written a fan fiction series based on Detective Conan (a series that, personally, I've not seen or read), called Detective Atanian.
Well, these three (mostly) fake stories all have title graphics? Why? Who the smeg knows! Well, the first two we can partially blame on Jason Bertovich, for creating material that these graphics could be attached to. And the third (Detective Atanian)? Well, I didn't want it to feel left out!
For Neon Genesis Boy Scouts, I tried to match as well as I could to the original logo. For the "Neon Genesis" part I used a font called Impact. For "Boy Scouts," Engravers MT looked to do the trick. (Yes, this logo still has "Evangelion" across it, bold as can be, in the original Japanese. Since Neon Genesis Boy Scouts still deals with NERV and Evangelions, this did not strike me as inappropriate.)
For Boy Scouts Muyo! it may seem a cheep trick just laying an English logo over the original Japanese one, but that was sort of what the Tenchi Muyo! logo was, back in the day! In an ideal world, I would have changed the Japanese text underneath to replace 天地 (Tenchi) with 少年団 (Boy Scouts) but that was rather beyond my meager skills, especially for something intended for use with a quick, one time joke. The font used for the overlayed English text is called Arabian.
For Detective Atanian, the logo of Detective Conan seems to be a pretty simple text based one, so I just went through my fonts until one caught my eye and then arranged things to be reminiscent of the arrangement in the Conan logo. Took a while, starting at the top, to find a font I would decide to go with! The font I ended up with is called X-Files.
Below are these three logos, with the logos they are based on for comparison. (In these comparison pictures, the "Boy Scouts" version logos are the property of Boy Scouts ½, but no ownership is implied over the accompanying images of the original logos that inspired them or any elements taken directly from the original logos for use in the "Boy Scouts" versions.)
To bring things deeper down the rabbit hole, the fictional Matt in that series would likely write his own fiction, but that one couldn't be based on Evangelion, or (since this isn't Martian Successor Nadesico, which seems to exist as fiction within that story's own fictional story of Gekiganger III) Ranma. So, what does the fictional Matt's fictional Matt write? (And does your head hurt yet?) He writes Boy Scouts Muyo!
And just because of "why the hell not?" the same story that revealed Boy Scouts Muyo! also made mention that somewhere, in yet another reality, Matthew Atanian must have written a fan fiction series based on Detective Conan (a series that, personally, I've not seen or read), called Detective Atanian.
Well, these three (mostly) fake stories all have title graphics? Why? Who the smeg knows! Well, the first two we can partially blame on Jason Bertovich, for creating material that these graphics could be attached to. And the third (Detective Atanian)? Well, I didn't want it to feel left out!
For Neon Genesis Boy Scouts, I tried to match as well as I could to the original logo. For the "Neon Genesis" part I used a font called Impact. For "Boy Scouts," Engravers MT looked to do the trick. (Yes, this logo still has "Evangelion" across it, bold as can be, in the original Japanese. Since Neon Genesis Boy Scouts still deals with NERV and Evangelions, this did not strike me as inappropriate.)
For Boy Scouts Muyo! it may seem a cheep trick just laying an English logo over the original Japanese one, but that was sort of what the Tenchi Muyo! logo was, back in the day! In an ideal world, I would have changed the Japanese text underneath to replace 天地 (Tenchi) with 少年団 (Boy Scouts) but that was rather beyond my meager skills, especially for something intended for use with a quick, one time joke. The font used for the overlayed English text is called Arabian.
For Detective Atanian, the logo of Detective Conan seems to be a pretty simple text based one, so I just went through my fonts until one caught my eye and then arranged things to be reminiscent of the arrangement in the Conan logo. Took a while, starting at the top, to find a font I would decide to go with! The font I ended up with is called X-Files.
Below are these three logos, with the logos they are based on for comparison. (In these comparison pictures, the "Boy Scouts" version logos are the property of Boy Scouts ½, but no ownership is implied over the accompanying images of the original logos that inspired them or any elements taken directly from the original logos for use in the "Boy Scouts" versions.)
Book Covers
As a bit of a vanity project (nothing like having a book on your bookshelf with your own name on the spine) and because I, personally, still prefer non-electronic forms of reading, I self-published a few nice hardcover Boy Scouts ½ books. Here are the covers that I designed for them.
The large photos or illustrations on the front covers of the books are the results of Google image searches (for Jusenkyo, the Holyoke Mall food court, and Maison Ikkoku, respectively) and as separate pieces are excluded from any claims of ownership that may appear elsewhere on this page. However, smaller other photos and illustrations on the covers, and everything within the context of the covers as whole pieces, are not excluded.
The large photos or illustrations on the front covers of the books are the results of Google image searches (for Jusenkyo, the Holyoke Mall food court, and Maison Ikkoku, respectively) and as separate pieces are excluded from any claims of ownership that may appear elsewhere on this page. However, smaller other photos and illustrations on the covers, and everything within the context of the covers as whole pieces, are not excluded.
Album Covers
What would it be like if Boy Scouts ½ had soundtrack albums? Well, that's the object of the Boy Scouts ½ Soundtrack Project! The following images are hypothetical album covers for if Boy Scouts ½ had soundtrack album CD releases.
Hopefully you have enjoyed this look at the art of Boy Scouts ½! Any artistic folk out there feeling inspired, I would certainly not turn my nose up at fan art submissions, and would be happy to update this page to include them! (Submissions can be e-mailed to [email protected]. Please include, "Boy Scouts ½ Fan Art" in the subject line. Art submitted to this e-mail address becomes the property of Boy Scouts ½.)
(A confession about one piece of art... one of the four faces featured on the Boy Scouts ½ Universe logo. Obviously, three of them can be identified as they are from Mike Quadrozzi's illustrations as featured on this page: myself, Mike, and Kenny. But the fourth: who is that woman? That is Fenny Lin, faetured so that a main character from both of the spin-offs could be included on the logo. But where did that illustration come from, and who drew it? I'll be honest, I cannot remember. It is not a piece that was made for Boy Scouts ½ (and thus, the illustration of Fenny is excluded from any claim of ownership by Boy Scouts ½ that would fall upon all other artwork on this website), and was once upon a time found by me somewhere upon the internet... I think it was part of an illustration that also included Fenny's two "sisters." I know it is a longshot when asking about an obscure drawing from over fifteen years ago, but if anyone has access to the full, original piece of art and / or knowledge of who drew it, I would very much appreciate having this shared with me.)
(A confession about one piece of art... one of the four faces featured on the Boy Scouts ½ Universe logo. Obviously, three of them can be identified as they are from Mike Quadrozzi's illustrations as featured on this page: myself, Mike, and Kenny. But the fourth: who is that woman? That is Fenny Lin, faetured so that a main character from both of the spin-offs could be included on the logo. But where did that illustration come from, and who drew it? I'll be honest, I cannot remember. It is not a piece that was made for Boy Scouts ½ (and thus, the illustration of Fenny is excluded from any claim of ownership by Boy Scouts ½ that would fall upon all other artwork on this website), and was once upon a time found by me somewhere upon the internet... I think it was part of an illustration that also included Fenny's two "sisters." I know it is a longshot when asking about an obscure drawing from over fifteen years ago, but if anyone has access to the full, original piece of art and / or knowledge of who drew it, I would very much appreciate having this shared with me.)
--Matthew Atanian, creator, Boy Scouts ½
Original Boy Scouts ½ Characters © 1997 - present by Matthew Atanian.
All art and graphics on this page © the original artist & Matthew Atanian unless otherwise noted.
The art on this page is the property of Boy Scouts ½ and may not be copied, distributed, or used on other websites. The only current exception is the allowed use of these materials within the context of the Boy Scouts ½ pages on TVTropes.org.
All art and graphics on this page © the original artist & Matthew Atanian unless otherwise noted.
The art on this page is the property of Boy Scouts ½ and may not be copied, distributed, or used on other websites. The only current exception is the allowed use of these materials within the context of the Boy Scouts ½ pages on TVTropes.org.