Blackford Manor is a six minute animated short directed by Jiwook Kim and co-written by Kim and her husband Patrick McHale. The main character Josette Gray comes to work as a maid "deep in the forgotten woods" at Blackford Manor, with butler Mr. Boggs and the cook, Mrs. Cook. They serve the mysterious Lord Montague whom Boggs claims is "under the weather" and is not to be disturbed. Driven by curiosity, Josette seeks to find more about her unseen employer...
While it was never expanded to a full series as initially pitched, Kim successfully crowdfunded Blackford Manor as an illustrated novel in 2021.
''Blackford Manor' contains the following tropes:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: It's implied in the short (and confirmed in the novel) that Josette is in love with Lord Montague who is probably a werewolf, despite having never met him.
- Big Eater: After Mr. Boggs serves out two regular bowls of stew for himself and Josette, he gives the rest of the pot to Mrs. Cook.
- Foreshadowing: Lord Montague's portrait depicts him holding a wolf's head cane.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Blackford Manor's cook is Mrs. Cook.
- Nervous Wreck: The stress of keeping Lord Montague's nighttime hunting a secret is taking a toil on Mr. Boggs; he even sucks his thumb at one point.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: It's never outright stated, but the ending strongly suggests that Lord Montague is one, turning every full moon if the Wham Line is anything to go by, and the novel also hints that it's inherited rather than transferred via wound.
- The Secret of Long Pork Pies: What Josette thinks is going on, that the surplus of meat for Mrs. Cook's stew is really the murdered Lord Montague. Subverted in that the meat comes from animals that Lord Montague has hunted...it's just he can only hunt during the full moon...
- Wham Line: Mrs. Cook says Lord Montague is a good hunter...but he only hunts during the full moon.
