Hollow Fields
Encyclopedia
Hollow Fields is a steampunk
-themed original English-language manga
written and illustrated by Madeleine Rosca
.
Volume 1 was released by Seven Seas Entertainment
in June 2007, with a second volume released on May 29, 2008, and a third released on January 6, 2009.
Lucy Snow is a 9-and-a-half-year-old girl who accidentally gets enrolled at Hollow Fields. When she first arrived at the town she asked a stranger where she could find Saint Galbat's Academy for young ladies, where she was enrolled to go. After taking the strangers advice she went into the forest surrounding the town and went searching for her school. She comes across Hollow Fields by mistaking it as the Academy and enters the building to be confronted by Miss Notch, who tries to kill her. By insisting she was enrolled "at the school in town", Miss Notch thinks she is a new student and gives her a contract to sign. She signs it and becomes Hollow Fields property until next year's graduation. She is in the fifth grade and has a class rival called Summer Polanski. She also has acquired an "talking box" called Doctor Bleak. At the end of Volume 2, she saves Claude from falling, but is discovered by Miss Weaver and being sent to detention with him.
Claude McGinty
Claude McGinty is a 10-year-old student also enrolled at Hollow Fields. He is a stern, standoffish guy who is a genius in all things mechanic, especially robots. He is trying to escape Hollow Fields with two of his other friends for unknown reasons. When Lucy Snow first encounters him, he is cold to her and calls her names, and shouts at her when she tried to talk to him. Lucy encounters him in the library late one night and asks to work with him to get out of Hollow Fields where he claims that "[Their] committee policy is no girls allowed", and later says that he makes the rules revealing that he has issues with girls. It is also revealed heavily by Miss Weaver that he once had a sister, who was sent to detention.
Summer Polanski
Summer Polanski is the smartest student at Hollow Fields. She is adored by the staff, and is very pretty. The author states that she is "The Most Popular Girl in School". She is crude to Lucy and no one wants to get on her "bad side". Her best friends are Francine and Carmen. She added a secret wing to the school that only she and her fellow classmates (aside from Lucy and Claude) are aware of, where students study to one day take over Hollow Fields. She despises Claude because he is smarter than her in robotics. Mr. Croach opted for her and Carmen to be taken to the windmill instead of Claude and Lucy.
Simon Belljoy
Lucy's first friend. He is the first person Lucy sees to be taken to detention. He manages to escape two months later to tell Lucy something but is caught soon after. No one is able to see his face after that, but he wears a huge cloak and floats around. He is seen briefly in chapter eleven when he shows Lucy and Claude how to escape the windmill. His fate in unknown but it is suggested he was destroyed by the windmill children.
Francine Steinwald
Francine is friends with Summer and Carmen. Shes the second one Lucy sees to be taken to detention. In chapter 11 her soul has been removed and put into a gear object similar to the one Doctor Bleak is in. In the same chapter, Miss Ricketts soul is put into her body through the Psychotransmigrator. It states that Francine is the first test subject that succeeded in Miss Weaver's experiment. It also states that shes Meg McGinty's friend.
The head of the school, which she built mostly herself. She teaches Clockwork Robotics as a subject. She is extremely cold and cruel towards students, and is rarely ever threatened by anyone. It is revealed that all engineers were once human 80 years ago. However, she had an illness that was incurable, and as she was dying, she decided to give her and the rest of the staff robotics bodies to extend their lifespan. Her husband, Doctor Bleak, was her first test subject who's soul was successfully transferd into a clockwork box. She announced the fact that her "experiment" worked, and she now needs more test subjects. She tells the students they did horribly on their mid-term tests, and changes to rule to two students being send to the windmill each week. It was revealed that her full name is Eleanor Weaver.
Miss Notch
The school maid. She was the one who allowed Lucy to enter Hollow Fields, and let her sign a contract, becoming Hollow Field's property until graduation. She is cheerful and busy, but is rather dark and cruel when it comes to disciplining children. When she was human, she was the young, and loyal maid of Miss Weaver. It was revealed that her full name is Emily Notch.
Miss Ricketts
The youngest and kindest teacher, favored by students. She teaches Cross-Species Body-Part Transplantation and Bio-Steam Graphing, and is also the school nurse. Her office is the hospital wing. In volume two, it is revealed that she is the one who created clockwork bodies for the Engineers. They visit her weekly for check-ups, as they are falling apart.
Mister Croach
The teacher of Grave Robbing, Live Taxidermy and Embalming. In other words, he creates any living creatures concerning dead flesh. He is strict and short-tempered, often rushing and frightening children. His full name is Archibald Croach Jr., and before joining Miss Weaver, he worked with his father at Croach and Croach Jr "Steam-Driven Solutions". He strongly dislikes children, and does not like to be in contact with other people.
Stinch
He is the school warden, created by Miss Weaver to be the perfect watchdog. However, as Miss Weaver is weak with creating anything from things other than clockwork, he has limited knowledge. He does whatever he can to catch students doing something wrong, and drags them to detention. His real gender, age, and race are unknown to everyone; it is said the closest possible gender for Stinch would be male. Lucy described him as looking like "he lost a fight with a sewing machine".
He is called "Doctor Bleak" for short. He is a box with clockwork inside, which Lucy smuggles around the school. He tutors Lucy on all her subjects and even gives her hints on how to escape the school. Doctor Bleak is held hostage after being discovered by Miss Weaver, and Lucy and Claude are sent to detention. When he was still human, Miss Weaver, who used to be his wife, used him as her first experiment subject by putting his soul into the box that he is right now. In the first volume, he says his name is Atticus Normandy Bleak, although Miss Weaver once called him Artemis.
and Artemis Fowl
, that combined "fantasy/horror themes with comedy and had a broad appeal" inspired Hollow Fields, though she noted some "manga and comic influences" in her overall work. Rosca enjoyed drawing Lucy and her "big range of expressions" as well as Miss Notch and her "prim mannerisms". She began the series in 2004 and by mid-2005, "had a cohesive version". She published Hollow Fields on the "online webmanga community" Wirepop in November 2005 and three days later, Seven Seas Entertainment
offered to publish Hollow Fields in North America. Seven Seas Entertainment released the three volumes of Hollow Fields from July 2007 to January 2009, and reprinted the series in an omnibus collection (ISBN 978-1-934876-72-5) on October 2009.
and Hayao Miyazaki
fans"; however, Dacey also commented on the plot as "a bit derivative, borrowing elements from Lemony Snickett and Harry Potter
not to mention Castle in the Sky
and Steamboy
" and wished for "a consistent tone" in the story. Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime described it as "a remarkable debut" and "a rich fantasy of fertile imagination that will appeal to fans of Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events". Ellingwood also commended the "immersing style with a highly attractive quality" of the artwork. Aint It Cool News's Scott Green wrote "Hollow Fields serves as a welcome, boisterous counter-point to post-Potter magical school fiction" and noted that it "does not closely conform to prominent the features of manga, or for that matter, western comics."
About.com
's Deb Aoki picked Hollow Fields as "2007's Best New OEL Manga", and Dacey listed it as an honourable mention in her list of the ten best global manga. Rosca was one of four winners presented with Japan
’s first ever "International Manga Award
" for her work on Hollow Fields.
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
-themed original English-language manga
Original English-language manga
Original English-language manga or OEL manga is the term commonly used to describe comic books or graphic novels in the "international manga" genre of comics whose language of original publication is English...
written and illustrated by Madeleine Rosca
Madeleine Rosca
-Biography:She grew up in country Victoria and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Monash University. She also received qualifications from Swinburne University and the University of Tasmania . She currently resides in Hobart, Tasmania...
.
Volume 1 was released by Seven Seas Entertainment
Seven Seas Entertainment
Seven Seas Entertainment is a publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original manga, but now publishes licensed manga and novels, as well as select webcomics...
in June 2007, with a second volume released on May 29, 2008, and a third released on January 6, 2009.
Plot
Little Lucy Snow was meant to be enjoying her first day at the nice elementary school in town; however, a macabre twist of fate sees her enrolled instead at Miss Weaver's Academy for the Scientifically Gifted and Ethically Unfettered - also known as Hollow Fields. Located on the outskirts of Nullsville and run by the insidious Engineers, the grim boarding school dedicates itself to raising the next generation of mad scientists and evil geniuses. After enrolling in the school by mistake, she realizes how dangerous it was for her to register. At the end of every week, the student with the lowest grades gets sent to 'detention'. Once they are taken away, nobody ever sees the student again. Lucy must find a way to escape the school and escape detention.Students
Lucy SnowLucy Snow is a 9-and-a-half-year-old girl who accidentally gets enrolled at Hollow Fields. When she first arrived at the town she asked a stranger where she could find Saint Galbat's Academy for young ladies, where she was enrolled to go. After taking the strangers advice she went into the forest surrounding the town and went searching for her school. She comes across Hollow Fields by mistaking it as the Academy and enters the building to be confronted by Miss Notch, who tries to kill her. By insisting she was enrolled "at the school in town", Miss Notch thinks she is a new student and gives her a contract to sign. She signs it and becomes Hollow Fields property until next year's graduation. She is in the fifth grade and has a class rival called Summer Polanski. She also has acquired an "talking box" called Doctor Bleak. At the end of Volume 2, she saves Claude from falling, but is discovered by Miss Weaver and being sent to detention with him.
Claude McGinty
Claude McGinty is a 10-year-old student also enrolled at Hollow Fields. He is a stern, standoffish guy who is a genius in all things mechanic, especially robots. He is trying to escape Hollow Fields with two of his other friends for unknown reasons. When Lucy Snow first encounters him, he is cold to her and calls her names, and shouts at her when she tried to talk to him. Lucy encounters him in the library late one night and asks to work with him to get out of Hollow Fields where he claims that "[Their] committee policy is no girls allowed", and later says that he makes the rules revealing that he has issues with girls. It is also revealed heavily by Miss Weaver that he once had a sister, who was sent to detention.
Summer Polanski
Summer Polanski is the smartest student at Hollow Fields. She is adored by the staff, and is very pretty. The author states that she is "The Most Popular Girl in School". She is crude to Lucy and no one wants to get on her "bad side". Her best friends are Francine and Carmen. She added a secret wing to the school that only she and her fellow classmates (aside from Lucy and Claude) are aware of, where students study to one day take over Hollow Fields. She despises Claude because he is smarter than her in robotics. Mr. Croach opted for her and Carmen to be taken to the windmill instead of Claude and Lucy.
Simon Belljoy
Lucy's first friend. He is the first person Lucy sees to be taken to detention. He manages to escape two months later to tell Lucy something but is caught soon after. No one is able to see his face after that, but he wears a huge cloak and floats around. He is seen briefly in chapter eleven when he shows Lucy and Claude how to escape the windmill. His fate in unknown but it is suggested he was destroyed by the windmill children.
Francine Steinwald
Francine is friends with Summer and Carmen. Shes the second one Lucy sees to be taken to detention. In chapter 11 her soul has been removed and put into a gear object similar to the one Doctor Bleak is in. In the same chapter, Miss Ricketts soul is put into her body through the Psychotransmigrator. It states that Francine is the first test subject that succeeded in Miss Weaver's experiment. It also states that shes Meg McGinty's friend.
Engineers
Miss WeaverThe head of the school, which she built mostly herself. She teaches Clockwork Robotics as a subject. She is extremely cold and cruel towards students, and is rarely ever threatened by anyone. It is revealed that all engineers were once human 80 years ago. However, she had an illness that was incurable, and as she was dying, she decided to give her and the rest of the staff robotics bodies to extend their lifespan. Her husband, Doctor Bleak, was her first test subject who's soul was successfully transferd into a clockwork box. She announced the fact that her "experiment" worked, and she now needs more test subjects. She tells the students they did horribly on their mid-term tests, and changes to rule to two students being send to the windmill each week. It was revealed that her full name is Eleanor Weaver.
Miss Notch
The school maid. She was the one who allowed Lucy to enter Hollow Fields, and let her sign a contract, becoming Hollow Field's property until graduation. She is cheerful and busy, but is rather dark and cruel when it comes to disciplining children. When she was human, she was the young, and loyal maid of Miss Weaver. It was revealed that her full name is Emily Notch.
Miss Ricketts
The youngest and kindest teacher, favored by students. She teaches Cross-Species Body-Part Transplantation and Bio-Steam Graphing, and is also the school nurse. Her office is the hospital wing. In volume two, it is revealed that she is the one who created clockwork bodies for the Engineers. They visit her weekly for check-ups, as they are falling apart.
Mister Croach
The teacher of Grave Robbing, Live Taxidermy and Embalming. In other words, he creates any living creatures concerning dead flesh. He is strict and short-tempered, often rushing and frightening children. His full name is Archibald Croach Jr., and before joining Miss Weaver, he worked with his father at Croach and Croach Jr "Steam-Driven Solutions". He strongly dislikes children, and does not like to be in contact with other people.
Stinch
He is the school warden, created by Miss Weaver to be the perfect watchdog. However, as Miss Weaver is weak with creating anything from things other than clockwork, he has limited knowledge. He does whatever he can to catch students doing something wrong, and drags them to detention. His real gender, age, and race are unknown to everyone; it is said the closest possible gender for Stinch would be male. Lucy described him as looking like "he lost a fight with a sewing machine".
Others
Doctor Artemis/Atticus Normandy BleakHe is called "Doctor Bleak" for short. He is a box with clockwork inside, which Lucy smuggles around the school. He tutors Lucy on all her subjects and even gives her hints on how to escape the school. Doctor Bleak is held hostage after being discovered by Miss Weaver, and Lucy and Claude are sent to detention. When he was still human, Miss Weaver, who used to be his wife, used him as her first experiment subject by putting his soul into the box that he is right now. In the first volume, he says his name is Atticus Normandy Bleak, although Miss Weaver once called him Artemis.
Production
Madeleine Rosca wanted to write a story which could appeal to both children and adults and that featured "a female protagonist" and "a steampunk-influenced setting". The concept of the series "gradually evolved over several months". Children's books such as A Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
and Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl (series)
Artemis Fowl is a series of fantasy novels written by Irish author Eoin Colfer and all the books are best sellers, starring the teenage criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl II. The author summed up the series as: "Die Hard with fairies." There are seven novels in the series; the first was published in...
, that combined "fantasy/horror themes with comedy and had a broad appeal" inspired Hollow Fields, though she noted some "manga and comic influences" in her overall work. Rosca enjoyed drawing Lucy and her "big range of expressions" as well as Miss Notch and her "prim mannerisms". She began the series in 2004 and by mid-2005, "had a cohesive version". She published Hollow Fields on the "online webmanga community" Wirepop in November 2005 and three days later, Seven Seas Entertainment
Seven Seas Entertainment
Seven Seas Entertainment is a publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original manga, but now publishes licensed manga and novels, as well as select webcomics...
offered to publish Hollow Fields in North America. Seven Seas Entertainment released the three volumes of Hollow Fields from July 2007 to January 2009, and reprinted the series in an omnibus collection (ISBN 978-1-934876-72-5) on October 2009.
Volume list
Reception
Hollow Fields was well received by critics. Ben Leary of Mania Entertainment called it "a good, clean, fun, and inventive read" with "cleanly organized" and "attractive" art. PopCultureShock's Katherine Dacey praised the art as "crisply appealing", which is "as good if not better than the artwork in many licensed series, employing the visual tropes of shonen manga to tell a story that would resonate equally with Frances Hodgson BurnettFrances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden , A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.Born Frances Eliza Hodgson, she lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester...
and Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
fans"; however, Dacey also commented on the plot as "a bit derivative, borrowing elements from Lemony Snickett and Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
not to mention Castle in the Sky
Castle in the Sky
All compositions by Joe Hisaishi.#"The Girl Who Fell from the Sky" – 2:27#"Morning in Slag Ravine" – 3:04#"A Fun Brawl " – 4:27#"Memories of Gondoa" – 2:46#"Discouraged Pazu" – 1:46#"Robot Soldier " – 2:34...
and Steamboy
Steamboy
is a 2004 Japanese animated steampunk film, produced by Sunrise, and directed and co-written by Katsuhiro Otomo, his second major anime release, following Akira. The film was released in Japan on July 17, 2004. Steamboy is the most expensive full length Japanese animated movie made to date...
" and wished for "a consistent tone" in the story. Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime described it as "a remarkable debut" and "a rich fantasy of fertile imagination that will appeal to fans of Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events". Ellingwood also commended the "immersing style with a highly attractive quality" of the artwork. Aint It Cool News's Scott Green wrote "Hollow Fields serves as a welcome, boisterous counter-point to post-Potter magical school fiction" and noted that it "does not closely conform to prominent the features of manga, or for that matter, western comics."
About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
's Deb Aoki picked Hollow Fields as "2007's Best New OEL Manga", and Dacey listed it as an honourable mention in her list of the ten best global manga. Rosca was one of four winners presented with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
’s first ever "International Manga Award
International Manga Award
is an award established to encourage non-Japanese manga artists in 2007. This award was created by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who proposed this award in a policy speech he gave in Tokyo's Akihabara district in 2006.-Winners:...
" for her work on Hollow Fields.
External links
- Hollow Fields at Seven Seas Entertainment's website