FoxTrot
| FoxTrot | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Bill Amend |
| Website | FoxTrot.com |
| Current status / schedule | Every Sunday |
| Launch date | April 10, 1988 |
| End Date | December 30, 2006 (end of dailies; Sunday-only continues) |
| Syndicate(s) | Universal Press Syndicate |
| Genre(s) | Humor, Family |
FoxTrot is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Amend. As of December 2006, FoxTrot is carried by over 1,000 newspapers worldwide.[1] It was published on a daily schedule from its inception in 1988 until December 31, 2006, when Amend switched it to a Sunday-only format.[1]
The strip covers a wide range of subject matter, including spoofs of pop culture fads and popular consumer products.
Characters
The Foxtrot comic is centered around the daily lives of the Fox family, consisting of parents Roger and Andy, and their three children: Peter, Paige, and Jason. Additional minor characters include Jason's pet iguana Quincy, and the friends and classmates of the children.
Places
The Fox family's address is 1254 North Elm Street, but the city and state have never been specified. On the subject of the Fox's specific location, Bill Amend has stated: "I've never established a town name for where they live. The mall sign was meant as an homage to the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo, California, where I used to shop as a teenager."[citation needed]
Several storylines in the strip have focused on summer vacation trips to various places. Early on, the Fox family spent summer vacation at Uncle Ralph's Cabin.[2] Later vacations by the Fox family have included trips to Hawaii, Washington D.C, the desert, various amusement parks (Most notable is Fun-Fun Mountain), and campgrounds.
Popular culture
In addition to typical family humor, the strip has many stories built around fandom, nerdiness and popular culture. The characters—primarily Jason, Peter, and Paige —frequently have new obsessions or interests which reflect the time period at which the strip was published. At least two FoxTrot strips have directly mentioned Wikipedia.
Jason is often portrayed as having a fascination in various science fiction and fantasy titles including Star Wars, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. He also plays Dungeons & Dragons (often with his friend, Marcus and, earlier in the strip, his brother Peter), and is frequently seen playing video games (which are often referenced by their actual titles such as World of Warcraft being called World of Warquest).
Scientific references
Amend majored in physics at Amherst College,[citation needed] and his knowledge of physics is sometimes reflected in FoxTrot's frequent inclusion of complex mathematical or physics formulae, usually written by Jason. Jason is also used to express Amend's knowledge of computer languages.[3]
Style
Passage of time
FoxTrot is similar to other comic strips in that the characters do not age (although in one very early strip, Roger's 45th birthday was celebrated). There was an in-joke on the lack of aging in a strip in which Andy told Jason that Roger had donated blood even though he was scared of needles because "We all have to grow up, kiddo." Jason replied, "Whoa, did I stumble into For Better or For Worse?", referring to a comic where the characters actually do grow up, up until September 2007.
Although the characters do not age, past events are occasionally referenced in the strip—most notably, Jason's summer at Camp Bohrmore, a science-based summer camp. Other past events in the strip may be referred to as happening "last year" even if the referenced storyline was printed more than a year ago.
Parodies and subtleties
The characters appear to be aware that they are living a comic strip, with references to such events as ink shortages and "whitening" toothpaste that erased Roger's teeth lines. In scenes where a character is reading a newspaper, Amend will often add a joke headline to the paper (such as "Cartoonist to join NASCAR Circuit"), usually accompanied by a caricature of himself. Other strips are sometimes referenced as well, and characters from other strips occasionally make cameo appearances.
When there is a detail in the background, such as a picture, often it will change from panel to panel. For example, in one strip there was a coffee mug, which in the first panel said "I Love NY" but in the second panel said "I Love SF." In the final panel it said "I Love Dumb Mugs."
Often, when a band, video game, or brand name is referenced, the name in question is a portmanteau of other names (such as "World of Warquest", frequently played by Jason -- the name is a portmanteau of World of Warcraft and Everquest, two popular games).
Computers
Several FoxTrot gags revolve around the use of a computer in some way. The first computer to appear in the FoxTrot strip was an old Apple II used mostly by Jason to play Star Trek video games. By 1991, Andy bought an unidentified style of Compact Macintosh; mid-1990s strips show a newer, unidentified Macintosh desktop computer, similar in design to a Macintosh LC or Power Macintosh. The Fox family has also had an iFruit (a parody of the original Apple iMac), which Andy purchased in 1999 after Roger's disastrous attempt at online trading which resulted it the family selling their old computer, and because she thought it was "cute". More recent strips have included a newer computer which resembles the most recent model of iMac.
Although the computers are never directly referenced as Macintosh products, Bill Amend has stated, "The computer itself is an Apple, but I never did specify or decide which model it was, neither did I make a strip of how the Foxes got it, because the only important thing about it is that it is their computer, but after the revolution of the Internet and new computer products and jobs now available to ordinary life I could finally make a good strip in which they switch to their iFruit computer and to show that Roger has some knowledge of the computer but not a lot."[citation needed]
Books
There have been 35 FoxTrot books published so far, all by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Of the 35 books, 25 are collections and 10 are anthologies. The anthologies are composed of the two or three previous collections, and include Sunday strips in color.
Merchandising
During the late 1990s, the character of Jason Fox was licensed to Wolfram Research as a product spokesman for its Mathematica software package.[4] In fact, Mathematica was referenced at least once in the strip (though several years before Jason was licensed).
References
| This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are insufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources. |
- ^ a b Universal Press. FoxTrot to Cease Dailies. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
- ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (pp. 60-1). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
- ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Death By Field Trip (p. 87). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1391-4.
- ^ Wolfram Research (June 8, 1998). Retrieved on 2006-10-11.
External links
Links last verified on January 3, 2007
- FoxTrot.com
- Universal Press Syndicate FoxTrot Page
- Bill Amend's Homepages
- FoxTrot comics at GoComics
- Biographies of Bill Amend
- Bill Amend's press release about FoxTrot Ceasing Dailies
| Universal Press Syndicate Comics | |
|---|---|
| Currently syndicated | Adam@home · Baldo · Calvin and Hobbes · Cathy · Clear Blue Water · Cleats · Close to Home · Condorito · Cornered · Cul de Sac · Doonesbury · The Duplex · The Elderberries · The 5th Wave · The Flying McCoys · For Better or For Worse · FoxTrot · Fred Basset · The Fusco Brothers · Garfield · Gaturro · Ginger Meggs · Heart of the City · In the Bleachers · Ink Pen · James Bond · Judge Dredd · La Cucaracha · Leyendas Míticas · Liō · Lucky Cow · Maintaining · Modesty Blaise · Monica's Gang · Mutt & Jeff · Non Sequitur · Overboard · Pepe · Pooch Café · Preteena · Prickly City · Princess Ai · Real Life Adventures · Ronaldinho Gaucho · Stone Soup · Tank McNamara · Tom the Dancing Bug · Tutelandia · Ziggy |
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