The Frank Book

AUTHOR: Woodring, Jim

ARTIST: Jim Woodring (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Fantagraphics Books

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1991-2001

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2003

Publication History

The Frank Book comprises stories that originally appeared in a variety of publications between 1991 and 2001, including “BUZZ”, “Dramatis Personae”, “Heavy Metal”, “Hyena”, “Measles”, “The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog”, “Pictopia”, “PULSE!”, “Snake Eyes”, and “The Stranger”. Frank, the central character of the stories, debuted on the cover of Jim Woodring’s autojournal, JIM, Volume 1, issue 4 (1990). He appears prominently in Volume 2 of JIM as well as in Tantalizing Stories and FRANK.

Fantagraphics Books released a two-volume set entitled Frank (1994) and Frank Volume 2 (1997) and released The Frank Book, a single-volume collection, in 2003. The new collection contains all previously published Frank stories, with the exception of “Frank and Monty in Forever Hungry” (Tantalizing Stories, issue 6), co-created with Mark Martin. Notably, some of the story titles have been expanded to reflect the content and, presumably, to avoid confusion, as many stories were previously published under the title “Frank.” One of these, for example, concerns an invitation Frank receives to attend a party; in The Frank Book, it is titled “Frank in the House of the Dead.” An appendix containing some additional comic art and the dramatis personae of the Frank series ends the volume.

Plot

The Frank stories share no common plot; rather, there are common thematic elements that signify, most prominently, mood and mythology. No one speaks, and text, when it appears, is minimal and serves only to move the story forward. Characters, including Frank, are often killed, only to reappear in a new incarnation. Thus, continuity between stories and overall character development are not features of this imaginary world, which is called the Unifactor. Indeed, the stories truly concern the ostensibly mysterious machinations of the Unifactor, so powerfully impressive is the imagined realm.

Similar to the manner in which Charles Schulz’s character Charlie Brown prominently inhabits the world of Peanuts, Frank occupies the Unifactor. Stories often begin with Frank observing his surroundings, giving rise to the critical observation that Frank possesses childlike wonderment and, at times, might be considered a stand-in for a reader trying to make sense of this world. Frank usually encounters or sets in motion conflicts that often have no clear resolution; the motivations of various characters regularly seem strange or outright baffling.

As the impulse or reasoning behind characters’ actions in the Unifactor is, at times, known only to Woodring, it becomes plausible to suggest that Woodring, consciously or not, works against interpretation. He displaces a critical emphasis on “plot” in favor of fueling a subjective appreciation of the comic’s aesthetics and the energies contained therein.

Characters

•Frank, the protagonist, is an anthropomorphic creature who appears in most of the stories and is, by turn, uncomplicated and cunning. He solicits comparison to George Harriman’s slapstick, ambiguously gendered Krazy Kat, as Woodring has stated that the bumbling Frank is sexless, despite his male name and the common use of the male pronoun to describe him; Frank, though, does not possess Krazy’s lack of guile. He appears to suffer from a form of anterograde amnesia, in that he evinces constant forgetfulness.

•Manhog, the antagonist, is Frank’s nemesis. Part man and part hog, Manhog suffers a good deal and exhibits base and basic desires.

•Whim is typically depicted as a thin entity with a grinning, devilish face. He is able to manipulate other beings and materials in the Unifactor, often through the use of his Whim-Grinder.

•Pupshaw and Pushpaw are Frank’s “pets,” both of whom jealously guard their benefactor.

•Jerry Chickens are misshapen, chickenlike creatures who are generally malicious.

•Real Pa and Faux Pa are two versions of Frank’s father. They are indistinguishable from one another to the extent that their appearance as two separate entities might be said to constitute an illusion. They are often in the service of Whim.

•Lucky is the ironically named, not-quite-human lackey whose life is constant work and drudgery.

Artistic Style

The Frank stories are most often drawn in black and white, with boldly lined characters and panels and clear gutters. Color, when used, is saturated, with finely balanced sky blues, pea greens, sage purples, damp yellows, and reddish oranges. Although the Unifactor contains psychotropic substances, reflecting the author’s self-admitted usage of the same, the hallucinatory effect is not necessarily displayed in the overall use of color.

The character of Frank was drawn initially with his left eye smaller than his right, though this dissimilarity disappeared early on. He is mostly purple, with a white belly and face, and has two buck teeth. His white boots and gloves recall Disney’s Mickey Mouse. Manhog, who goes without clothing like most of the characters, originally and briefly possessed a penis.

A variety of other creatures and things reflect the unpredictable and unknowable nature of the Unifactor. Notably, jivas, spiritlike symbols that litter the realm, appear in a multitude of colorful forms. There are occasional humanoid characters and other entities both recognizable, such as frogs, and utterly strange, such as floating “bilats.”

The Unifactor’s landscape is recognizable to readers, with flora and water; its interior, though, is at once solid and pliable. Buildings bespeak an Eastern influence.

Themes

The aesthetics of the Unifactor inspire and evoke a mood concomitant with an alien mythology rather than a knowable, Earth-like existence. Frank wanders the landscape in a state of constant wonder and makes observations, the impetus and true impact of which are rarely fathomable. In Woodring’s first full-color Frank story, 1992’s “Frank in the River,” which opens The Frank Book, Frank walks through a town empty of other sentient beings, looking at and being passively looked at by objects possessing eyes. The nondual “eye” is symbolic of the unity of the Godhead and indicates conscious awareness. He accidentally knocks over a large urn, breaking it; this action sets up the rest of the story, in which he encounters Manhog in their place of mutual employment. Physical and psychological conflict, strange motivations, competition and manipulation, and the spiritual “rightness” of jivas combine in a story that is as open-ended as the random accident that compelled the story’s plot.Variations on this episode and its aesthetics color many of the stories. In “Frank in the House of the Dead,” Frank is reading, bedecked with a fez, suggesting a philosophical bent; for Frank, this is invariably a pose. A leaf blows in through a window, distracting him. He goes outside to look at his garden and sees a sluglike creature on the ground, a two-dimensional bilat floating by, and the Whim-like face of the garden’s scarecrow. He leaves the house with a picnic basket, only to sit under a tree and think about himself; in his reverie, he imagines his death. Jivas abound. This pressing theme of the spiritual becomes, more than anything, perhaps the most striking yet subtle aspect of Frank’s world, infusing it to the extent that the spiritual principle of animism is the chief philosophical feature of the Unifactor.

This is not surprising, considering Woodring’s professed study of Ramakrishna, the nineteenth-century Hindu mystic who embraced Advaita Vedânta, with its emphasis on nondualism and unity. In this light, the name “Unifactor” bears particular potency. If an engagement with the spiritual results fruitfully in one’s ostensible betterment, then Frank should experience change. However, he and his cohorts do not; rather, their frequent transformations reflect, if anything, the violence generated by selfish ends. Spiritual change would be unwarranted. They are in the Unifactor rather than of it, still possessing a material existence that betrays their failure at spiritual transformation. If Frank’s constant forgetfulness and self-concern are any indication, a lack of awareness of the world that one is a part of will always present an obstacle to embracing the spiritual and its attendant freedoms.

More directly, “Frank and the Truth about Plenitude” begins with Frank observing a flock of floating jivas. He reaches out to touch one, but it evades him. Sneaking up on another, he captures it and uses it as an airship. Ultimately reaching an observatory, he anchors the jiva and proceeds to dress up as a kind of swami, after observing the mode of dress in a portrait. However, the self-centered and simple-minded Frank is not a master of himself, as a swami would be, and so his attempts at levitation are limited. He gives up in frustration, finding peace only after he releases the jiva. Woodring suggests that Frank is enamored by surface and style more than the rewarding depths found in a spiritual life that is won by committing to change.

Manhog treads a similar path in “Gentlemanhog.” After suffering a Jerry Chicken’s prank, he encounters a two-dimensional shadow man in an Edenic garden. The entity educates Manhog in all ways, and Manhog ends up wearing a philosophically inspired fez. His master dies, and Manhog again meets Frank, whom he invites to dinner. To Frank’s horror and Manhog’s evil delight, the dinner is the Jerry Chicken. Violence, revenge, and, most notably, a return to form—Manhog will never be a “gentleman”—are typical of Woodring’s creatures.

Despite the recurring violence and confusion, Woodring’s world is not without its playful side. In “Frank’s Fish,” Frank catches a fish that is replete with a moustache, lipstick, and mascara, which he takes home to eat. While cutting the fish, though, Frank is faced with a series of Chinese boxes: fish inside fish inside fish. The final fish escapes, and its shadow imprint, spattered on the wall, is also imprinted on Frank’s face in the final frame. The title is knowingly misleading, then, in that Frank never really possesses the fish; rather, it is the fish that in some way has grasped Frank, leaving a carnivalesque stamp. Frank and fish are herein associated through superficial markings, suggesting that the unity and mutual dependence of the hunter and the hunted are, though serious, sources of inspired play. In that manner, the story achieves almost allegorical heights: Frank attempts to possess something he needs, with the result that the sought-after thing leaves its mark but escapes. Likewise, the reader struggles to comprehend the artist’s presentation of the mystery of the Chinese-box fish, with the result that the sought-after meaning leaves its mark and remains elusive. The story has no resolution save the imprimatur of art itself.

Impact

Woodring’s Frank stories are so individualistic as to defy imitation. However, similarities to Woodring’s revival of supposedly dead characters can be found in animated series such as Animaniacs and South Park. In terms of its nonsensical nature, the Frank series has much in common with Kaz’s Underworld, Archer Prewitt’s Sof’Boy, and the dreamworld of David Heatley.

Films

Visions of Frank. Directed by Jim Woodring. Press Pop, 2007. This film features eight animated shorts in various styles, including the traditional two-dimensional comic form and claymation. Most of the shorts depict Frank’s encounters with Whim and his Whim-Grinder.

Further Reading

Kaz. Underworld (1992- ).

Prewitt, Archer. Sof’Boy (1997- ).

Woodring, Jim. The Lute String (2005).

Bibliography

Poodle, Amy. “Jim Woodring’s FraAOOOO-OOOOOIIIIink: Detourning the Dream Factory.” Mindless Ones, May 9, 2008. http://mindlessones.com/2008/05/09/fraaoooooooooiiiiink-detourning-the-dream-factory/#more-224.

Tong, Ng Suat. “A Short Walk Through the Unifactor: Jim Woodring, Frank, and Weathercraft.” The Hooded Utilitarian, July 6, 2010. http://www.tcj.com/hoodedutilitarian/2010/07/a-short-walk-through-the-unifactor-jim-woodring-frank-and-weathercraft.