A field in
S  p  r  i  n  g
and
A  u  t  u  m  n

manga is the Japanese comic form but is much more widely read than in the west. Periodicals can be as thick as telephone books and one series, Akira, had six huge detailed volumes.

I wrote this short, two chapter story, from the inspiration of a manga cover used on a publication house's release flyer. The painting showed a young girl in flowing robes, her hair braided like Princess Leia's, armed with an incredibly long bow quiver (as long as she was tall), standing or sitting in a multi-coloured field of flowers, petals blowing past her in the wind; and just beside her was her guardian companion, a behemoth of a robot all cast in bronze, swirling patterns like those on Persian mosques etched into it, both its arms ending with huge solid disk shaped shields. It is a beautiful picture, calling out to be turned into a story (I haven't been able to track down the original manga).

There was a period in Chinese history called the Spring and Autumn period, a name that conjures up grand images. It was easy to tie the two together; the girl was already in the Spring time surrounded by flowers and I wanted to write that image of her. The biggest step that I had to take was to create the Autumn period and for this I extended upon the guardian relationship between the girl and her robot to be a common one amongst all of her peoples and to produce a antagonist for them.

What would force a race of people to build giant guardian robots? Beyond the field lay a river and beyond that the untamed wildlands where beasts and monsters just as large as the guardians lived. I did not delve too deeply into the world, just enough for a short story.

Spring: A young girl, Fionna,  and her guardian robot Calladroen enjoy the pleasant Spring weather in a field by the river, which marks the boundary between civilised lands and the untamed. Yet something has crossed the river.
read more...

Autumn: When the flowers are gone leaving just the blades of grass the land is invaded and the villagers and their guardians must repel the beasts as they cross the river.
read more...

top | home