NOTES FROM RANDY
It’s that time of the week again. Another Jacket time. Another Jacket place. But the same Jacket Tuesday.
This page is a special one. It was one that I redrew several times, and in the end, showing Fortescue Manor in the same shot as I had done in Chapter 2 felt necessary. Whenever a change of scenery happens in a story, you need an establishing shot. The only other time you need an establishing shot is if you’re trying to show the passage of time. And that’s part of the reason I kept it the same.
In Chapter 2, it was all about showing the dilapidation from the flashback when Penny was a child up until Penny returned the first time as an adult. Now I placed it in silhouetted shadows with the sun at its back, aiming to make it feel almost like the “shadow lands” of (insert any foreboding movie scene here). Since the dilapidation was already focused on, I felt like I was able to black it out and let it almost “call” to Colton and Avery.
So fun fact about Fortescue Manor; it IS a real place. Well, not Fortescue Manor, but the house is a real one.
Gonder Mansion has a very, very sad history to it. Due to familial infighting that resulted in the near banishment of one of the family members, and then eventually her death by suicide, Gonder Mansion has just as many skeletons in the closets as Penny’s fictional home. If you want to read about it, this is the best, most fleshed out writing I’ve found. You can also glimpse one of the many pictures I used to actually nail down my drawing of Fortescue Manor. Again though, content warning for talk of suicide.
So lastly, why Gonder Mansion? Because Jason and I both loved the house. It’s in Strasburg, PA, which is where we both live. I can’t remember who suggested it first, but since Jason wrote the scene, I’m going to go ahead and say he offered up the idea to use Gonder Mansion’s likeness first. So since I can’t talk about why, much more than that, I thought I’d tell one more personal story.
Back in high school, I took a videography course. For the final project, I had to team up with 3 other classmates and we all had to come up with a project to do together. We chose to do a sort of Ghost Hunters knock-off, featuring the ghost stories of places like Hell’s Funnel and Gonder Mansion. While I won’t talk about all of the things we caught, the greatest thing about Gonder was being able to not only see inside, but to speak to the then owner of the house.
She was quite kind, even though no one in my group actually wanted to go knock on the door. So I did it. Worst case scenario, I get yelled at to leave. I asked her about the story of the mansion, as we had only heard rumblings at that time. See, there were no blog posts online about this story back in 2006. It was all “who heard what and from who.” The kind owner allowed us to film a quick interview with her about the ghost story of Annie Gonder.
The final thing she gave us was something I still haven’t found anywhere. Annie’s favorite flower was the rose. Not the red ones, as they weren’t from Pennsylvania at the time. There are multiple other wild roses native to our state though. And allegedly, this building here, The Olde Village Mill, is right next to where Annie died by suicide in the Pequea Creek. And for years, it was COVERED in vine roses on the side facing the creek where Annie died. Sadly, the owners have since removed all of them, and I’ve been unable to find any images old enough, say 10 years ago or so, with any of the vines on the building. You can see clearly where the vines left green stains on the building, but it was said that Annie was the reason that those roses grew only on the side facing the creek.
Okay, that’s my time. You’ve read plenty from me. Until next time.
-Randy