Foxtrot

FoxTrot is a daily American comic strip by cartoonist Bill Amend, which began syndication on April 10, 1988. It centers around the daily life (which isn't all that normal) of the Fox family. In addition to typical "family" humor, the strip has many stories built around fandom, nerdiness and Internet culture. It is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate.

About the strip

Amend majored in physics at Amherst College, and this is reflected in FoxTrots frequent inclusion of complex mathematical formulae, usually written by Jason Fox. The formulae are correct, though oddly flavored; Jason often uses them to describe bizarre situations, or, more rarely, they are school assignments for Peter Fox. Amend also uses Jason to express his knowledge of computer languages in much the same way that he uses physics formulae (once Roger asked for a cup of Java to start his day and Jason gave him about 20 pages of code). Both these elements add a layer of superfluous complexity to the strip, and juxtaposed with the odd circumstances in which they appear, give FoxTrot a uniquely surreal air.

Related Topics:
Physics - Amherst College - Mathematical

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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 Jason was Paige's brother. For this period of time, only the above mentioned characters appeared in the strip (along with the camp director, Dr. Archibald, as well as another character, Hawkins, who seems to be even more of a nerd than Jason is), 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. In that story, Phoebe's prized camp journal turned up missing, and Jason, Marcus, Eileen and Phoebe ended up accusing each other of the crime and even disbanding their top-secret friendship club. It turned out that Eugene was the real thief, and Eileen, Phoebe, Marcus and a reluctant Jason created a new top-secret friendship club, one without any type of disbandment clause. The Wu siblings also appeared in the strip on October 31, 2004.

Related Topics:
June 16 - August 16 - 1997 - Bill Amend - Comic strip - Counselor - ''Welcome to Jasorassic Park - ''Camp FoxTrot - 2000

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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 ." In scenes with large crowds, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes can often be seen in the background. In some scenes, 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, or on a picture frame. 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. Often signs in the theater are edited to have a humorous effect (such as "Mission Impossible 2: The Comic Strip Deadline"). Peter's posters in his room also are often edited to read things like "Baywitch". Almost all of Peter's posters are a parody of Baywatch.

Related Topics:
Newspaper - Elevator - Calvin and Hobbes - Cathy - Dilbert - T-Shirt - Bill Watterson - Baywatch

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Many products seen in the strip have altered names, such as "Chips McCoy" (Chips Ahoy!), "Toridos" (Doritos), "Cap'n Sucrose" (Cap'n Crunch), "Fax Mactor" (Max Factor), and "Arper Shimage" (Sharper Image). 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 occasionally patronize has two M's back-to-back, parodying the McDonald's logo. Many pop culture products (especially video games) are amalgamations of two different names. Examples include Doomathon (a combination of first-person shooter games Marathon and Doom), Duke Quakem (a combination of Quake and Duke Nukem), "World of Warquest" (World of Warcraft and EverQuest), and Jason's video game systems, his Jupiter-64 Gamestation (a combination of the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64, and the Sony PlayStation) and GameStation 2 (a combination of PlayStation 2 and GameCube). (Ironically, earlier strips had Jason playing the actual Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES systems, with some games having altered names such as Mortal Karnage, Primal Instinct, and Super Earthworm Mario Country 3, while other games had their real names, such as the Super Mario Bros. series.)

Related Topics:
Chips Ahoy! - Doritos - Sucrose - Cap'n Crunch - Max Factor - Sharper Image - Seventeen - Time - Sports Illustrated - Fast-food restaurant - M - Parody - McDonald's - Logo - First-person shooter - Marathon - Doom - Quake - Duke Nukem - World of Warcraft - EverQuest - Sega Saturn - Nintendo 64 - Sony PlayStation - PlayStation 2 - GameCube - Nintendo Entertainment System - Super NES - Mortal Karnage - Primal - Instinct - Earthworm - Mario - Country 3 - Super Mario Bros.

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Andy has also joined the organization MAGG (Mothers Against Gory Games) out of concern for the level of violence in the games Jason and Peter played. The list of video games approved by MAGG included such titles as "Nice City," "Pacifist-Man," "Ms. Pacifist-Man," and "Resident Good" (takeoffs of, respectively, "Vice City," "Pac-Man," "Ms. Pac-Man," and "Resident Evil").

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The walls of the Fox home are adorned with pictures or paintings, usually of fruit. A specific pictures fruit will change from panel to panel.

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In the cinema where Peter works you can also often see names such as Trek Wars. 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 week ' came out, Peter dressed up as Garfield to promote the movie.

Related Topics:
Cinema - Trek Wars - Cafeteria

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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.

Related Topics:
Dryer - Brand name - Bleach - Clorox - April 13 - 1988 - April 17 - Throwaway panel - Honeycomb

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Merchandising of the Strip

On the FoxTrot website, there is a link to FoxTrot products. These include the collections and anthologies as well as shirts, mugs, posters, and other items. Many of these include whole comic strips or have FoxTrot pictures on them.

Related Topics:
Shirt - Mug

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