I suspect this may not be for everyone, but for those who are interested in such things, I've added a new section to the Art page. This section takes a look at the title design for Boy Scouts ½ and its various spin-offs, compares them (where appropriate) with what inspired them, and when existing fonts were used, discusses which ones were utilized.
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Yesterday, I reorganized the Extras page a wee bit. Mainly, I did this as there are a ton more extras now then when the Extras page was first created. So I've divided it into a few subsections and reorganized what was listed on it accordingly. Didn't seem worth its own blog post... but since I did a few more things just now, I figured I'd mention it.
As to the few more things I did just now... I added Martha's recently published second squirrel story to the Timeline page. I made three more additions to the timeline, although these additions are as of yet unpublished. This is because they are as of yet unwritten. Which brings me to the next little thingy... The announcement of three upcoming side stories to the Boy Scouts ½ In Japan series! This trilogy, which is collectively titled In Japan Origins (a title not at all inspired by a Hugh Jackman film...) will detail the stories of the voyages that certain characters take to go from America to Japan. The final one, which will also be the first one chronologically, is having its title temporarily withheld in order to protect a slight spoiler... If you're not Jason Bertovich, who already knows the answer, feel free to speculate away! Although don't expect me to spill the beans if you happen to be correct. (I'll be interested to see if there is any speculation, as sometimes I wonder if anyone other then myself and Jason ever reads these blog posts... I would not object to a more vocal fan base!) Anyway, that's all for tonight. Good night, Boy Scouts ½ fan(s)! Hello, everybody. Matt here. I sort of have two new stories for you, except not really. For one thing, they're not new. They were written in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Thus, at least one and likely both actually predate the writing of the first Boy Scouts ½ story. Secondly, these are true stories.
It is a pair of tales that were originally presented in the local Order of the Arrow lodge's quarterly newsletter, The Servant, and relate experiences of yours truly at national Scouting events I attended those summers. The first one, since it predates the trip to China and is not contradicted by anything that has happened in story, can absolutely be considered canon for Boy Scouts ½! The second... well, I suppose you'll have to view it as an alternate history of what I'd have been up to in the summer of '97 had I not gone to China with Aaron, Mike, and the Bills. So, I present to you, Tales From Real Life!!! Enjoy! (And hey, Julio Rivera! I know you're out there! The Boy Scouts ½ twitter has only two followers, and you're the one who isn't Jason Bertovich! You should check this out, you were along for the 1996 voyage related here.) Hi, everybody! Guess what? I've got an update that actually is to announce new content!
First of all, a new story! Martha Wadley brings us a follow up to her first story. So I present to you To Conquer the World: The Night the FBI Came to Call. Enjoy! Secondly, some new work by Jason Bertovich! But this time, it isn't a story. It's some art! So visit the Art Page to view his drawings of himself and some of the other Perspectives characters. (And for those eagerly awaiting his next story, I understand that he is also working on that, so hopefully the wait shan't be much longer!) Back soon, with hopefully more new updates! I've been showing the Boy Scouts ½ TV Tropes pages some love in the last 24 hours. I tinkered a bit with the main page. I added multiple entries to the character page (although it could still use many more), and I created a YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) page and a recap page. Check 'em out!
I'll be doing more tinkering in the near future, especially to get the recap page caught up with all existing stories. (As of now, it just has the Year One main and side stories.) As a reminder, TV Tropes can be edited by anyone, so feel free to contribute to any of the Boy Scouts ½ pages! (Although I shall say that I'd prefer to write the brief summaries on the recap page myself... but other then that, contribute away!) Well, folks, a while back you might remember a post I made were I was gauging interest towards a limited run of Boy Scouts ½ printed books. The response was... well... underwhelming, to say the least. Still, it may have been for the best. Even if, as I said, I personally kept none of the profits, selling Boy Scouts ½ for money is a line I am probably better off not crossing.
Still... I thought it might be fun to make these available as PDF files that you can download and perhaps use on your newfangled electronic reading devices. (Darn kids today... In my day, when you read, you got paper cuts! And you liked em!) So, if you're interested, check out the new Boy Scouts ½ eBooks page! Enjoy! Howdy, folks. I regret to say that there is no new story at the present, and I do know that it has been a little while. I just wanted to give anyone who may be waiting an update.
For the main series, Hughes is still working on part 6. Unfortunately, he is taking longer then originally expected due to things such as his finishing an internship and then going directly into a new and time consuming job. And, well, that kind of takes priority! He still wishes to write this story, and has asked for a bit of a delay. (He did have a specific time in mind, but I don't wish to publically say what it was so that if it happens to slip a bit more, you all don't get upset about it.) I was a bit sad about the delay... but then I thought, "Well, Matt, it isn't like you've never let BS½ slip a bit... sometimes by years, rather then months! And for far less good of a reason!" So best of luck to Hughes, and I hope we can all (myself included) be patient for him. I was talking to Jason, and he hopes to get working in earnest on the next Perspectives soon. I haven't heard anything specific from Ms. Martha Wadley, but she has asked me the occasional question which leads me to believe we have certainly not seen the last of the squirrels. So patience, friends! There will be more Boy Scouts ½! In unrelated news, that Kickstarter I shamelessly plugged in my last post, reguarding funding for a new Fantast / Sci-Fi convention I'm helping to organize here in Western Mass, is still ongoing. About 10 days less, and I fear we're only up to not quite 20% of our goal. If anyone was thinking about contributing, we'd appreciate the hell out of it. Every bit helps! Click the banner below to check it out: This is a stick-up! Okay, not really, no. But do you recall not long ago me saying that I've gotten involved in helping to run a new Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention in Western Massachusetts? Well, we need the green stuff to help make it as awesome as possible, and if anyone out there wants to help, that'd be awesome. A few bucks can get you a thank you mention in our con's program. $5.00 can get you a keychain, and for an extra $1.00 we'll even ship it to you, in case you can't make it to the con to get it in person. Most of the donation levels after that involve things that would be most attractive to people actually planning to attend the con, and if that includes you, then awesome! Look forward to seeing you there. But if you alas can't make it, you can still donate more then $6.00 out of the goodness of your heart should you desire. Anyway, anyone who can help out... THANKS! And even if you can't donate monetarily, it would be of great assistnce if you can at least help to get the word out: Mention our Kickstarter to your friends! Link to it on your Facebook thingies! I've tried to void getting on board with a lot of the modern social media. I still plan to never sign up for a Facebook account. (I watch South Park. I'm not that good at Yahtzee, I wouldn't stand a chance!) And another thing I've avoided for the longest time is Twitter. I may not be as magnificently a verbose bastard as I recently accused Jason Bertovich of being, but I still shudder at the thought of a 144 character limit!
But, I thought... Maybe that Twitter thing could just be a good way of people being notified of when there is an update here. So what the heck, I signed up for an account. But it is purely as a means to allow people to easily follow things here. That is it. I won't be going off into the Twitterverse and going crazy with millions of little messages. And don't ask me to follow you or anything else. I am not following anyone. Well, if this is useful to any of you, hooray! Enjoy! Otherwise... well, move along, folks. Nothing to see here. Anyway, for anyone interested, just click on the little Twitter icon on the right side of this page, or click here. This blog post is about Boy Scouts ½, yet will still be somewhat (in my opinion) off topic, as it does not entirely pertain to this website or announce new stories. But, well, 'tis my website, and I've never let a little thing like being off topic stop me before. I just try not to abuse it too much. And, as mentioned, at least I will be talking about Boy Scouts ½. But before I get to that...Well, this will be a long post! So I just want to go off topic by going on topic and remind all of you (especially anyone who might have missed the last few blog posts) that there are two new stories! So if you haven't done so yet, please check out Perspectives II (v. 2.0): The Least You Could Do by Jason Bertovich, and To Conquer the World: The Cabin in the Woods – A Quest for Money and Power, by Martha Wadley. Now, where was I? These days, everyone has their Kindles, and Nooks, and what have you. And yes, I suppose those can be rather convenient. And heck, since the beginning, Boy Scouts ½ has been available primarily in an electronic format. Its home was on the web, and that is where most people read it. But you know what? I come from an older time. I don't own a Nook or Kindle. When I read books, I prefer the tactile experience of paper in my hands. The turn of the pages. The smell of the ink and paper. The original Star Trek, while it certainly had some fantastical elements, did have a lot to it that came true. Sure, they may not make cool "sssssht!" noises, but automatic, electronic doors are now an everyday thing. The cel phone owes a lot to the communicator. And libraries of information, available on personal data displays at the touch of a button. But in one episode, Kirk, in need of a lawyer, meets a man named Samuel T. Cogley. And Mr. Cogley preseted a point of view I cannot help but agree with. KIRK (Noticing the piles of books everywhere): What is all this? I always thought Cogley had a point. Probably why I own more then a few books. For example, here is one of my book shelves: Some good stuff on this shelf. The Complete Far Side. A Monty Python autobiography. Some works by Stewart and Colbert. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. A whole bunch of Douglas Adams, including the leather bound volume mentioned in Boy Scouts ½ as a book that character-Matthew would often be found with. But wait, what is that in the middle? Let us take a closer look. Is that? Yes! It is! Two quite nice, hardcover volumes of Boy Scouts ½ goodness. The first volume contains the thirty original Boy Scouts ½ stories, the Year One epilogue, and most of the Year One side stories. The second volume contains the original Perspectives I - X, Kenny's Laboratory, and the remaining few Year One side stories. A few more interior shots. To the left, the first page of each Christmas story. To the right, just a random interior page. And finally, the back covers. Between the two of them, there is actually one real quote! (Well, two real ones, but the second one is about a different book!)
The first of these I made back in 2010. There are only eight copies in existence, most of which I gave away as gifts. Although, three of them are still in my apartment. One, because I ended up living with who I gave it to, the other because I just still had an extra one on hand. The second one I worked on last month, and published it towards the beginning of this month. There are only two of this one in existence, and since the recipient of the second got his in the mail today, I can now post about it here without spoiling the surprise. (I suppose if she wanted one, I'd make her one... but since we live together now, Rachel doesn't really need her own copy!) Since the last Perspectives story had an unexpected Sunday package delivery, it is quite an odd (and mysterious) coincidence that Jason received his copy today! Anyway, there is something quite special to me about having these in book form. Part of me wishes I could share these with anyone who wanted them. Trouble is... Well, I ain't giving them away for free to everyone! And, what with the plethora of, shall we say, elements inspired from other sources, I had vowed to never sell Boy Scouts ½ for profit. Well... I suppose, if these were made available for a limited time, and I didn't personally profit from them... Hopefully that won't cause any litigious trouble! Now, the hardcover versions would probably be a bit much for most people. (If I sold them at cost, they'd be a decent price... but for reasons I'll get into at a moment, even though I will not personally profit, I wish to sell them above cost.) But, I suppose, if I took some time and reformatted them to be available in paperback, I could make them available at a reasonable price. "Wait," you say, "what is this about selling them above cost, but not making a personal profit?" Well, I was thinking... As I recently mentioned, I'm working on a new Sci-Fi convention. (See this blog post for further info.) Now, cons are expensive business. So, I thought, if I do sell any books, I will donate any proceeds towards the startup costs of the con. (We need money! Money for guests, for advertising, for facilities, etc...) "But," you then say, "won't you jus profit on the back end of the con?" Yeah, right. If there is anything left afterword, and that is a big "if," that money will go right back into the following year. Any prospect of personal profit from the convention is years off! So there it is. Now, I'm not going to just go and reformat the books for paperback without any hope of anything coming from it. So here's the deal. Not many people comment on my blog posts. Usually, no one does. And if anyone does, it's usually just Jason. (No offence, Jason! I love when you do!) If I am going to do this, I first want ten responses to this blog post from people saying they would be interested in buying these books if they are made. That's it. Just interested. You don't even have to promise to do so. Just say you're interested, and hopefully once they are available, you'll still be interested and give it proper consideration. And in the process, you'll be helping out a cool new convention. Thanks! |
Matthew Atanian
Creator, editor, and main author of the stories within the Boy Scouts ½ Universe.
Vote for Boy Scouts ½ at TopWebFiction.com!
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