Sandy’s mom

Sandy's mom
Gender	Female
Species	Cat
Family	Sandy (Daughter)
Occupation	Sandy’s manager
Debut	To the Top, page 4 July 14, 2010 (2010-07-14)

Sandy’s mom is the unnamed woman behind Sandy’s modeling career, the one who drives her to the agency and keeps her on schedule. She has turned up in two main-comic chapters so far, and both times she was telling Sandy to get a move on.

Personality

The morning briefing ends with a word of encouragement.

Brisk, busy and permanently mid-errand, Sandy’s mother treats her daughter’s day like an itinerary. She quizzes Sandy from the driver’s seat, coaches her through a rolled-down window, and answers her phone in the middle of a conversation without much apology. Warm words do turn up now and then, but they tend to come out sounding like part of the briefing.

She treats the morning of an agency meeting a bit like a job interview. In To the Top she hurries Sandy through her shower and reminds her how much first impressions matter. At the door she sends Sandy in with a three-word formula, “professionalism, loyalty, and charisma”, which Sandy repeats to herself all the way inside. That drive has a history to it. Veronica has confirmed she used personal connections to get Sandy into modeling in the first place, helped along by Sandy always bombing at school. She is capable of a softer moment, too. Before driving off she closes her eyes, smiles, and tells Sandy she has done this before and can do it again.

Appearance

Sandy’s mother makes a chilly entrance in Just Beautiful.

Sandy’s mother is a cat with short, dark hair. In To the Top she wears a dark long-sleeved top and is mostly seen with her hands on the wheel of a rather nice car. In Just Beautiful she turns up in a long blue winter coat with a phone pressed to her ear.

Significant events

To the Top begins with Sandy’s mother driving her forward, whether she is awake for it or not.

Her first pages in To the Top are spent as a voice from the other side of a bathroom door, hurrying Sandy along because they have a lot to do. She then drives Sandy into the city, asking whether she is rested and thinking positively, and shouts her awake when she dozes off to the radio. At the agency she coaches Sandy through the car window, gives her a pep talk and drives away. Later that day Sandy tells Mike she will check with her mom about visiting Roseville, and the next morning she is back in her mother’s car with her eyes shut.

In Just Beautiful she collects Sandy from her reunion with Mike after the fashion show, and the goodbye she allows is a hurried one. After that she remains off panel in later chapters. In Track Meet Sandy recalls how much her mother disliked Francis, and in Tickets Please Sandy vents about the rules she now has to follow on work trips.

Major relationships

Sandy

Sandy’s mother runs her daughter’s days down to the minute. Sandy goes along with it to her face and grumbles about it everywhere else. In the car in To the Top every question gets a flat “Yes, Mom”. In Just Beautiful her mother reaches for Sandy’s bow with an “Oh, what have you done to your hair again...” and then takes a phone call while Sandy is still asking to say goodbye to her boyfriend. Sandy waits until her back is turned and then runs over to kiss Mike, a rare on-panel act of defiance toward her mother.

Sandy’s junior-year phone calls are where the grumbling gets loud. She calls her mother a “nag” over her travel rules, and admits she just wishes her mother would trust her again after the business with Francis. All the same, Sandy concedes in Line in the Sand that her mom had the right idea about keeping busy, and Veronica has remarked that the truth about Francis casts Sandy’s mother in a more positive light. Veronica has since clarified that, despite chafing at the lack of independence, Sandy trusts her mother to look out for her; their current disagreement is that her mother wants her to go to school while Sandy would rather keep modeling.

Minor relationships

Mike

Even her permission to say goodbye comes with a time limit.

Mike has yet to hear her say a word to him directly. The closest she has come is telling Sandy to be quick about saying goodbye to her boyfriend in Just Beautiful, which Veronica’s commentary counts as her at least acknowledging that he is one. According to Sandy in Track Meet, her mother thinks Mike is great precisely because he lives far away and is therefore “not a distraction”. Mike is less flattering about her. He describes her treatment of Sandy as a way of terrorizing her, and Sandy agrees that is the right word.

Quotes

What they want to see is professionalism, loyalty, and charisma. Sandy’s mom, briefing Sandy at the agency door in To the Top

You’ve done it before. I know you can make it. Sandy’s mom, the pep talk before driving off in To the Top

Oh, what have you done to your hair again... Sandy’s mom, reaching for Sandy’s bow while she and Mike laugh over his matching scarf in Just Beautiful

Trivia

• Her line “Sandra, we have to go.” in Just Beautiful is how the comic reveals Sandy’s full name; when a fan asked about it in 2019, the official Tumblr pointed straight to that page.
• She is only a voice for her first two pages and a silhouette in the car for her third. Veronica’s commentary explains she was trying very hard to hide that the girl in the chapter was Sandy.
• Oliver remarked that she looks like Molly. Veronica’s commentary blames the comparison on the short hair and objects at length, insisting her ears aren’t always drooping.

See also

• Sandy
• Mike
• Modeling agency