FoxTrot is a daily comic strip by cartoonist Bill Amend that began syndication on April 10, 1988. It is centered around the daily life (which isn't all that normal) of the Fox family. It is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate .

Contents

1 Characters 1.1 The Fox Family: 1.1.1 Roger 1.1.2 Andy 1.1.3 Peter 1.1.4 Paige 1.1.5 Jason 1.1.6 Quincy 1.1.7 The iFruit 1.2 Recurring characters who are not part of the Fox family 1.3 Recurring characters who do not appear often 1.4 Characters who no longer appear in the strip 2 About the strip 2.1 Subtleties 3 FoxTrot books 3.1 Collections 3.2 Anthologies 4 Other languages 5 External links

Characters

The Fox Family:

Roger

Roger Fox is the father and a not-too-bright corporate slave. He is a fan of televised sports and chess, though any time he attempts to play them, he finds himself either losing (chess) or breaking bones (sports), and he indulges in foods of all kinds (despite the dubious cuisine Andy produces, he remains perpetually overweight). Roger can practically destroy a computer by touching it. He is 45 years old and was born in Chicago. He frequently tries to barbeque, but usually ends up burning the food (and himself). His ideas of a good family vacation are quite similar to those of Calvin's father (from the popular comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes). Of the primary cast, he is probably the most oblivious to the world around him. He lives with his wife and children at 1254 North Elm Street.

Andy

Andrea "Andy" Fox is the mother and a freelance writer. When she was an English major in college, someone used to slip anonymous love notes under her door. Her paramour, unfortunately, turned out to be a total dweeb...But she married him anyway. She is now 42 years old and extremely vital to the household: without her, it would "collapse in a day or two." She cooks absurd "health-food" meals, such as lima bean cobbler or tofu curry. A penny-pincher when it comes to heating, she insists on keeping the thermostat extremely low during the winter months, often low enough to freeze soft drinks, milk, and hot chocolate. For the most part, she keeps the family grounded and acts as a straight-man to their antics, but she herself has received little time in the spotlight. Most of her storylines center around new obsessions--collecting "Bitty Babies," the movie Titanic, and her Mango-Kiwi-colored iFruit computer. Only recently, when her mother was introduced to the strip, has Andy become a truly rounded character.

Peter

Peter "Pete" Fox, the oldest child at 16, is a junior in high school. He habitually procrastinates on schoolwork until the last minute ("I should start on my book report. Ah, there's always tomorrow. I suppose I'll need a book. When's the library open?"). He is a sport fan and likes to pretend he is football\baseball\basketball star, though in truth he is generally relegated to bench-warming, if he makes the team at all. He also entertains fantasies of becoming the lead guitarist in a rock band one day. He is capable of ingesting massive amounts of food, but never gains a pound. He works a summer job at the local movie theater as a janitor and ticket collector. He met his girlfriend Denise in 1988 and has been dating her ever since. He wears a blue and white baseball cap with the letter A on it, a grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans almost daily.

Paige

Paige Fox is the 14-year old, style-obsessed sister and a freshman in high school. She is always depicted with a ponytail. It has been suggested in the strip many times that Paige get a new hairstyle. When Amend was asked if it would happen, he said probably not, because no one would recognize Paige otherwise. Paige can't get herself a prom date, unless one counts geeky Morton Goldthwait (which Paige doesn't). Most of her jokes center around the idiosyncracies of high-school popular culture, as well as Jason's attempts to annoy her (which mostly end with him getting beat up). Her frequent attempts to cook only yield charcoal and smoke. Unlike Peter, she does not have a single object of her affections, though her naptime dreams often feature a dashing hunk named Pierre.

Jason

Jason Fox is the 10-year old, often annoying nerdy little brother. His life mission appears to be to annoy Paige, which often results in her beating him up and breaking his glasses. Ironically, we never see Jason without them on. Jason has frequently tutored Paige in math, though he prefers to be referred to as a "math consultant". He is smart enough to know the average temperature on Venus and to solve complex equations that most adults would find staggering, but at the same time believes that Santa Claus and the X-Files are real. He is also a genius with all things computerized, having once written his own Internet browser and, another time, crashed the entire Internet itself (by accident) with a "Darth Jason" virus. He also wrote his own operating system, Jasondows. He can also be found frequently entertaining outrageous schemes to either earn or spend huge amounts of money: he once attempted to found a dinosaur-themed casino in Las Vegas and once attempted to build a skyscraper comic book shop--only to scrap that plan, as it would take up space that was already reserved for his Star Wars-themed amusement park, including a life-sized Death Star ride. His favorite activites besides bothering Paige are playing video and computer games, such as Doomathon, drawing Slug-Man cartoons, and maintaining romantic tension between himself and Eileen.

Quincy

Quincy is Jason's pet iguana. Quincy specializes in two fields: chewing on everything, and scaring the wits out of Paige. Jason's hypothesis that he could conjure a similar reaction out of all girls was disproved when he brought Quincy to school for show and tell, and Miss O'Malley, his teacher, thought Quincy was cute. (He is; if the strip has a 'cute animal' factor involved, it is undoubtedly Quincy.) Paige once saved him from choking on a shoelace while Jason was out of the house. Quincy is a frequent observer of the Fox household antics, but he has only ever shown three facial expressions: his standard, calm-eyed gaze; a scrambling panic when Jason throws him in the air; and dizziness after landing. He is by far the most unflappable member of the household.

The iFruit

After Roger's disastrous attempt at earning a living through online trading ended with him selling the family's old computer, Andy purchases a Mango-Kiwi iFruit (based on the original Apple iMac). The iFruit can talk, criticize font selection and even change the wallpaper (of the room). Though initially mortal enemies with the geeky Jason due to its emphasis on ease of use, Jason grows attached to it, especially after matching colour schemes persuades his mother to buy all manners of peripherals, such as scanners. It once beat Roger in chess 250,000 times in a row; the one time Roger beat it, Andy was convinced to call the repair center. Evidently, it is durable enough that even Roger cannot damage it.

Recurring characters who are not part of the Fox family

• J. P. Pembrook: the CEO of Roger's company, who – unbeknownst to him – has his million-dollar deals analyzed by a ten-year-old (i.e. Jason). We never see his face, only his hands; given his ruthless personality, that may be a good thing.

• Fred: Roger's friend at work. Often plays golf with him (and always wins). Roger apparently considers Fred to be an authority on everything.

• Steve Riley: Peter's best friend from high school. Owns an electric guitar and amp set that Peter sometimes borrows, much to his parents' dismay. Steve also has a job at the local pizza parlor.

• Denise Russo: Peter's blind girlfriend. Denise's parents have been heard to speak, but have never been shown on Peter's visits to Denise's house. Denise is clearly the one in control of the relationship.

• Nicole: Paige's best friend, also fashion-obsessed. Seems to have better luck with boys then Paige (which doesn't say much), which causes problems in their relationship.

• Pierre: Literally the boy of Paige's dreams. He is a perfect French lover who appears in daydreams of Paige's. Usually when he appears, the last panel shows Jason doing something she would freak out at. For example, if Paige is dreaming of kissing Pierre, in actuality it might be Jason holding Quincy up to her lips. Usually, all Paige says to Pierre's antics is "Ooo, Pierre!" Pierre fans should look to pages 187-192 of Enormously FoxTrot, there is a special collection of Paige and Pierre art panels. Once Paige dreamed about Pierre at school and mentioned his name out loud just when the teacher asked for the capital of South Dakota (Pierre).

• 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. He took the SATs as a freshman and was mad he got a 1590 (one raw score below perfect). Considered a hero by Jason.

• Margaret O'Dell: A woman Paige babysit s for. She likes to leave Paige endless lists of phone numbers and instructions. She doesn't seem to be married.

• Katherine "Katie" O'Dell: Ms. O'Dell's daughter whom Paige babysits; the only character to age over time: when she first appeared she was nine months, but she has since aged to two years. She once had an obsession with the childern's TV show, Blue's Clues, but seems to have gotten over it. She once cut up her dress while Paige was sleeping; another time she learned a swear word from Paige and Paige had to shut her up with several jars of peanut butter.

• Marcus Jones: Jason's best friend, with whom he emulates Star Trek and bothers Paige. Has four sisters (Doreen, Lisa, Lana, Cybil). Marcus' mother is a nurse. All members of Marcus' family, save Marcus himself, are unseen characters.

• Eileen Jacobson: Jason's sometimes arch-enemy, sometimes semi-friend, whom he doesn't want to admit he secretly likes. A Harry Potter fan, Eileen didn't appear in the comic until 1995, when she got a higher grade than Jason on a math test, and ended up going out for ice cream with him. Eileen also showed when Jason and Marcus went to summer camp. She has made quite a few appearances since and Jason eventually admitted he liked her.

• Miss O'Malley: Jason and Marcus' teacher since 1991. She's the replacement for Jason and Marcus' former teacher, Ms. Grinchley.

• Slug Man and Leech Boy: Comic book characters created by Jason in a Batman and Robin parody. Slug Man and Leech Boy are almost always fighting their arch-enemy, Paige-O-Tron, the most evil robot in the universe.

Recurring characters who do not appear often

• Grandma: Andy's mother, whom everybody loves and calls perfect, especially in comparison to Andy herself. Needless to say, this doesn't make Andy herself feel very good, as their feud has been going on since fifth grade. Grandma's real name is not known (since she is Andy's mother, her last name wouldn't be Fox, but rather Andy's maiden name). The two appeared to have made peace on their first meeting, but affairs have relapsed since then (probably because Grandma is simply too interesting a character to be discarded after a single use).

• Phoebe Wu: Eileen's companion. She met Eileen at Camp Bohrmore Science Camp in 1997. She kept a journal for her time at camp, even saving samples of the food. She, Eileen, Marcus and Jason formed a Super-Secret Friendship Club while at camp, something the two boys have had varying cause to regret since then.

• Eugene Wu: Phoebe's arrogant brother. His friends call him The Brain--or at least, they would. If he had any friends.

• Miss Rockbottom: Paige's gym teacher. Paige once called her a "power-hungry neo-Nazi fascist tub of lard," but Paige thinks she took this as a compliment.

• Mr. Wu: Paige's biology teacher, who has come to rely on her lab reports as a source of weekend entertainment.

Characters who no longer appear in the strip

• Linda Downer: Peter's unrequited crush before he met Denise, has not appeared since 1988. Apparently a friend of Paige.

• Miss Grinchley: Jason and Marcus' teacher before Miss O'Malley. Despite her name, she does not seem reminiscent of the Grinch.

• Skip Riley: Roger's summer intern in 1990, who wanted to be just like Roger and did all he could to please him. Shortly afterwards, he switched to becoming summer intern for Charles Diggs, who heads Roger's department.

About the strip

Since Amend was a physics major in college, and is somewhat of a nerd, FoxTrot often includes mathematical formulas. The mathematical formulas that frequently appear in FoxTrot 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. Through Jason, Amend oftentimes expresses his knowledge of computer languages and usually writes programs for humorous purposes.

From June 16 to August 16, 1997, Bill Amend did a series of comic strips where Jason attended Lake Bohrmore Science Camp. Jason, Marcus and Eileen all attended this summer camp, and it was the first appearance of Phoebe and Eugene. Morton Goldthwait was Jason's counselor, although he didn't find out until the end of 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 beginning and end. After the end of this series, the strip returned to normal. These comics can be found in Welcome to Jasorassic Park and Camp FoxTrot. In 2000, Phoebe and Eugene briefly appeared in the strip again when they visited their uncle, who lives in the neighborhood featured in FoxTrot.

Subtleties

If one observes closely, one 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." In scenes with large crowds, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes can often be seen in the background. In some scences, characters from various comics can be seen in the background. On one occasion, pictures of Cathy, Dilbert, and Calvin and Hobbes were seen as pictures above a staircase. On another occasion, Peter is shown wearing a Calvin and Hobbes T-Shirt, at a time when Bill Watterson was having licensing conflicts with his publisher.

Many products seen in the strip have altered names, such as "Chips McCoy" (Chips Ahoy! ), "Toridos" (Doritos), "Cap'n Sucrose" (Cap'n Crunch), and "Fax Mactor" (Max Factor). Most of the magazines shown, at least starting from around 1994-95, are parodies of real magazines or magazine genres. For example, Paige often reads "Fourteen" magazine (Seventeen), and other altered magazine titles seen frequently are "Thyme" (Time) and (at least for a while) "Illustrated Sports" (Sports Illustrated). The fast-food restaurant that the Foxes occasionaly patronize has two M's back-to-back, parodying the McDonald's logo.

In the cinema where Peter works you can also often see names such as Trek Wars and the like. Other signs on walls have been seen to change message between panels. For example, in the first panel of a cafeteria scene, a paper sign in the background reads, "No food fights!" In the next panel, it reads, "Really!" In the last panel, it reads "We mean it!"

The first one of these 'subtleties' to appear was a dryer which had the brand name "Dry Queen 1000" on it. Also, we see a partial view, the "OX" on a bottle of bleach, presumably Clorox . This was the third strip; it was shown April 13, 1988. The first subtlety to be shown in a color Sunday strip appeared April 17, 1988 in the "throwaway panel" identifying the strip. It shows Jason eating "Honey Skulls" (Honeycomb) cereal.

FoxTrot books

Collections

Beginning with Death By Field Trip, the size and shape of the regular collections changed to accommodate a new Sunday strip layout. The books were also made smaller to give a larger gap between anthologies (see below). They (as well as the anthologies) are published by Andrews McMeel Publishing , and are available wherever books are sold.

• FoxTrot (1989)
• Pass the Loot (1990)
• Black Bart Says Draw (1991)
• Eight Yards, Down and Out (1992)
• Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain (1993)
• Say Hello to Cactus Flats (1993)
• May the Force Be with Us, Please (1994)
• Take Us to Your Mall (1995)
• The Return of the Lone Iguana (1996)
• At Least This Place Sells T-Shirts (1996)
• Come Closer, Roger, There's a Mosquito on Your Nose (1997)
• Welcome to Jasorassic Park (1998)
• I'm Flying, Jack ...I Mean, Roger (1999)
• Think iFruity (2000)
• Death By Field Trip (2001)
• Encyclopedias Brown and White (2001)
• His Code Name Was The Fox (2002)
• Your Momma Thinks Square Roots are Vegetables (2003)
• Who's Up for Some Bonding? (2003)
• Am I a Mutant, or What! (2004)

Anthologies

Originally, the anthologies were made up of the previous two smaller collections, with color Sunday strips (as opposed to black and white in the smaller books). Starting with Assembled with Care, the anthologies are made up of the three previous smaller books.

• FoxTrot: The Works (1990)
• FoxTrot en masse (1992)
• Enormously FoxTrot (1994)
• Wildly FoxTrot (1995)
• FoxTrot Beyond a Doubt (1997)
• Camp FoxTrot (1998)
• Assorted FoxTrot (2000)
• FoxTrot: Assembled with Care (2002)
• Foxtrotius Maximus (2004)

Other languages

Among the other languages that FoxTrot is translated into is Spanish[1] http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrotespanol/ and Portuguese.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about FoxTrot

• Foxtrot.com http://www.foxtrot.com
• Universal Press Syndicate FoxTrot Page http://www.amuniversal.com/ups/features/foxtrot/index.htm
• Bill Amend's Homepage http://homepage.mac.com/billamend/
• FoxTrot Comic Page http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/