Frank

Frank
Gender	Male
Species	Cat
Breed	Korat
Family	Ellen (Wife) Mike (Son) Haley (Daughter) Chris (Son)
Debut	December, page 34 December 19, 2011 (2011-12-19)

Frank is Mike’s father and Ellen’s husband, a cat who has spoken exactly one sentence in the entire comic. Most of what the story has to say about him is said while he is somewhere else.

Personality

Frank is the quiet half of Mike’s parents. Ellen handles the instructing and the teasing while Frank stands beside her looking placid and keeping his mouth shut. Put him on a couch full of his own family smirking at Mike’s new girlfriend and his is the one face that stays perfectly level.

Frank comes home laughing in Adult Supervision, leaving Ellen to handle the talking.

He looks just as easygoing in the handful of scenes he actually turns up for. He heads out with a cheerful goodbye to the kids and comes home laughing with his wife in Adult Supervision, and in Model Girlfriend he simply turns his head to look at Mike and Sandy while Haley, Ellen and Chris grin. The only time he looks stern is inside Mike’s head, arms crossed and frowning while Ellen does the yelling. Veronica’s commentary points out that this is Mike’s anxious imagination at work, and that in reality Haley would be the one in trouble.

Appearance

Frank is an adult male cat. The only outfit described for him is a suit, worn for a night out with Ellen in Adult Supervision.

Significant events

In Adult Supervision, Frank and Ellen dress up and head out for the evening, leaving Mike and Haley home alone. Ellen hands out the instructions at the door, and Frank adds a “See you in the morning!” before following her out. That is his whole speaking career. The two of them come back at midnight in a very good mood. He turns up again in Model Girlfriend, sitting on the family couch when Mike brings Sandy home, and leaves the grilling to Ellen.

Ellen works out what Frank has left behind, with no help from the man himself.

He is nowhere to be seen in Second String, and that is rather the point of his part in it. Ellen angrily tells an unnamed caller that Haley is not Chris’s parent and that caring for him is falling back on her. Two pages later, Mike offers to babysit, trailing off with “I know Dad is..” before Ellen answers with a flat “Yeah.”

Major relationships

Ellen

Frank and Ellen look like a happy couple for exactly as long as he is on screen. They go out together in Adult Supervision and come home smiling and laughing, with him carrying her purse, and they share the couch to size up Sandy in Model Girlfriend. The BCI strip Ships Ahoy, Season Six makes the marriage its subject: Haley asks whether their different work schedules leave Ellen lonely, Ellen says it only makes weekends more special, and the last panel has the two of them asleep on the couch with Chris.

By Second String, the marriage has deteriorated sharply, even though Frank himself never appears. Ellen shouts “She’s not his parent, YOU are!” down the phone at an unnamed caller, then hangs up muttering that it is all on her again. When Mike volunteers to babysit, he only gets as far as “I know Dad is..” before she answers with a flat “Yeah.” Veronica has since described Mike’s parents as being “on the brink of divorce.”

Minor relationships

Frank and Mike have almost no relationship on panel. Frank’s only line is a general goodbye to Mike and Haley as he leaves with Ellen, and Mike later imagines his father as the silent, disapproving half of a parental scolding. In Second String, Mike’s unfinished “I know Dad is..” is part of his offer to babysit Chris when Ellen needs help.

Quotes

See you in the morning! Frank, his one and only line, heading out the door in Adult Supervision

Trivia

• His name is never said aloud in the comic. In dialogue he is only ever “Dad”.
• He first appears in a family photograph on the wall in December. His first appearance in person is in Adult Supervision, which was originally a Volume Three book exclusive before going online in December 2013.

See also

• Ellen
• Mike
• Mike’s house