Fox Trot
Fox Trot is a daily
comic strip by
cartoonist Bill Amend. It began syndication on
April 10,
1988. It is centered around the misadventures of the Fox family.
The characters in the family include:
- Roger Fox: the father, corporate slave and not-too-bright, loves to play sports and chess(as long as he wins), can practically destroy a computer by touching it, 45 years old
- Andrea "Andy" Fox: the mother, a freelance writer, without her, "the house would collapse in a day or two," cooks disgusting meals she thinks are healthy, such as lima bean cobbler, 42 years old
- Peter Fox: older brother, jock, junior in high school, literally procrastinates until the last minute("school dosen't start for another 15 minutes"), 16 years old
- Paige Fox: style-obsessed sister, freshman in high school, always depicted with a ponytail, 14 years old
- Jason Fox: annoying nerdy little brother, mutual mortal enemies with Paige, who often breaks his glasses, Jason is smart enough to know the average temperture on Venus is and how to solve complex equations that most adult would find stagering, but believes that Santa Claus and the X-Files are real.
- Quincy: Jason's pet iguana, chews on everything
Some recurring characters who are
not part of the Fox nuclear family:
- J. P. Pembrook: the CEO of Roger's company, who unknown to him has his million dollar deals analyzed by a ten-year-old(i.e. Jason)
- Fred: Roger's friend at work, often plays golf with him (always wins)
- Grandma: Andy's mother, who is practically perfect compared to the rest of the family; this annoys Andy, who wants to measure up
- Steve Riley: Peter's best friend, a rocker
- Denise Russo: Peter's blind girlfriend
- Nicole: Paige's best friend, also fashion-obsessed
- Pierre: literally, the boy of Paige's dreams
- Morton Goldthwait: the "biggest geek in school" according to Paige. He has a crush on her and hasn't given up, despite what she thinks of him. Took that SATss as a freshmen and was mad he got a 1590(which is ten short of perfect)
- Miss Rockbottom: Paige's gym teacher; Paige calls her a "power hungry neo-nazi fascist tub of lard," Paige thinks she took this as a compliment
- Margaret O'Dell: Paige babysits from this woman
- Katherine "Katie" O'Dell: Ms. O'Dell's daughter whom Paige babysits; the only character to age: when she first appeared she was nine months, but she has aged to two years
- Miss O'Malley: Jason, Marcus and Eileen[1]'s teacher since 1991
- Marcus Jones: Jason's best friend, with whom he emulates Star Trek and tortures Paige, has four sisters
- Eileen Jacobson: Jason's worst enemy, whom he doesn't want to admit he secretly likes, a Harry Potter fan
- Phoebe Wu: Eileen's companion (doesn't appear often)
- Eugene Wu: Pheobe's brother (appears less than Phoebe)
Charactors who used to be in the strip, but are no longer:
- Linda Downer: hasen't appeared since 1988, Peter's crush before he meet Denise
- Miss Grinchley: Jason, Marcus and Eileen's teacher before Miss O'Malley
From
June 16 to
August 16,
1997,
Bill Amend did a series of
comic strips where Jason atended Lake Bohrmore Science Camp. Jason, Marcus and Eileen all atended this summer camp, and it was the first appearance of Pheobe and Eugene. Morton Goldthwait was Jason's counselor, although he didn't find out until the end of the Jason's stay at camp that he was Paige's brother. For this period of time, only the above mentioned characters appeared in the strip, and Peter, Paige, Roger and the others only appeared at the begaining and end. After, the end of this series, the strip returned to normal. These comics can be found in
Welcome to Jasorasic Park and
Camp Foxtrot. In
2000, Pheobe and Eugene briefly appeared in the strip again.
Since Amend was a physics major in college, and is somewhat of a nerd, Fox Trot often includes mathematical formulas. The mathematical formulas that not-infrequently appear in Fox Trot are correct, if a bit oddly flavored. They are the sort of thing that would be written only as exercises simultaneously covering basic skills in calculus, algebra, trigonometry, and arithmetic in one short line, but not really having a clear central purpose the way elementary mathematical exercises generally do.
If one observes closely, they will notice that in any scene where a character is reading a newspaper, there are headlines that say things such as, "Cartoonist Delivers Triplets in Elevator" or "Cartoonist to direct Jurassic Park II." Also, in scenes with large crowds, Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, can often be seen in the background.
It is syndicated by United Press Syndicate.
List of Fox Trot Books
Collections:
- FoxTrot
- Pass the Loot
- Black Bart Says Draw
- Eight Yards, Down and Out
- Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain
- Say Hello to Cactus Flats
- May the Force Be with Us, Please
- Take Us to Your Mall
- The Return of the Lone Iguana
- At Least This Place Sells T-Shirts
- Come Closer, Roger, There's a Mosquito on Your Nose
- Welcome to Jasorassic Park
- I'm Flying, Jack...I Mean, Roger
- Think iFruity
- Death By Field Trip
- Encyclopedias Brown and White
- His Code Name Was The Fox
- Your Momma Thinks Square Roots Are Vegetable
- Who's up for some bonding?
Anthologies:
The anthologies are made up of the previous two books, with color Sunday strips (as opposed to black and white in the smaller books) up until and subsequently including Assembled with Care which was made up of the three previous books.
- FoxTrot: The Works (anthology)
- FoxTrot en masse (anthology)
- Enormously FoxTrot (anthology)
- Wildly FoxTrot (anthology)
- FoxTrot Beyond a Doubt (anthology)
- Camp FoxTrot (anthology)
- Assorted FoxTrot (anthology)
- FoxTrot: Assembled with Care (anthology)
[1] Eileen didn't appear in the comic until 1995, but we can assume that she was there all along, even if she didn't appear.
External Links