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[[Image:Foxtrot_andy.JPG|frame|right|A harried Andrea "Andy" Fox]]
[[Image:Foxtrot_andy.JPG|frame|right|A harried Andrea "Andy" Fox]]
Andy is most often the [[straight man]] to her family’s antics but her efforts to control them and their addiction to [[television]] and the [[Internet]] are a source of humor in and of themselves. She makes them eat "seemingly-inedible" health-food (including [[lima bean]] [[Cobbler (food)|cobbler]], [[tofu]] [[curry]], and beetloaf) which she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that they can’t stand. She often nags Peter and Paige about their bad habits, like procrastinating on their homework, their lack of respect for [[Shakespeare]], and [[literature]] in general<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Take Us To Your Mall|publisher= Andrews Mcmeel Publishing|date=(1995)|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-8362-1780-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Encyclopedias Brown and White (p. 105)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2001|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-1850-9}}</ref>. A proud member of M.A.G.G. (Mothers Against Gory Games), she confiscates Jason and Peter’s violent video games and has once been offended that [[Donkey Kong]] does not wear pants. To some degree, she also seems to disapprove of their playing video games in general, as she deliberately buys computers unsuited to gaming. She also gives them "practical gifts" for Christmas such as thesauruses. She refuses to “waste” money on heating and keeps the thermostat so low that it freezes [[soft drink]]s, [[milk]], [[hot chocolate]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Assorted FoxTrot (p. 155)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2000|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-0532-6}}</ref>, electronic devices<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Death By Field Trip (p. 79)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2001|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-1391-4}}</ref>, steam rising from a cup of coffee, and [[oxygen]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=How Come I'm Always Luigi? (p. 47)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2005|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-5683-4}}</ref>. She is extremely competitive with her own mother, one of the world's greatest cooks, who is less strict and more in tune with the family's tastes (especially in cuisine and gifts), so is therefore much better appreciated and respected by them.
Andy is most often the [[straight man]] to her family’s antics but her efforts to control them and their addiction to [[television]] and the [[Internet]] are a source of humor in and of themselves. She makes them eat "seemingly-inedible" health-food (including [[lima bean]] [[Cobbler (food)|cobbler]], [[tofu]] [[curry]], and beetloaf) which she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that they can’t stand. She often nags Peter and Paige about their bad habits, like procrastinating on their homework, their lack of respect for [[Shakespeare]], and [[literature]] in general<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Take Us To Your Mall|publisher= Andrews Mcmeel Publishing|date=(1995)|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-8362-1780-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Encyclopedias Brown and White (p. 105)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2001|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-1850-9}}</ref>. A proud member of M.A.G.G. (Mothers Against Gory Games), she confiscates Jason and Peter’s violent video games and has once been offended that [[Donkey Kong]] does not wear pants. To some degree, she also seems to disapprove of their playing video games in general, as she deliberately buys computers unsuited to gaming. She also gives them "practical gifts" for Christmas such as thesaurusi. She refuses to “waste” money on heating and keeps the thermostat so low that it freezes [[soft drink]]s, [[milk]], [[hot chocolate]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Assorted FoxTrot (p. 155)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2000|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-0532-6}}</ref>, electronic devices<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Death By Field Trip (p. 79)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2001|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-1391-4}}</ref>, steam rising from a cup of coffee, and [[oxygen]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=How Come I'm Always Luigi? (p. 47)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2005|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-5683-4}}</ref>. She is extremely competitive with her own mother, one of the world's greatest cooks, who is less strict and more in tune with the family's tastes (especially in cuisine and gifts), so is therefore much better appreciated and respected by them.


Ironically, Andy has little restraint when it comes to herself. She scarfs down Halloween candy and Christmas cookies and has become obsessed with Bitty ([[Beanie Baby|Beanie]]) Babies <ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 65-6)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2000|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-0532-6}}</ref>, the film [[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]] <ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 17-8)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2000|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-0532-6}}</ref>, the game [[Nintendogs]], and many other things. She procrastinates almost as badly as her children, playing [[Myst]] and [[Tetris]] and watching [[soap opera]]s when she should be writing her newspaper column.<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain (pp. 45-6)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=1993|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-8362-1706-3}}</ref>
Ironically, Andy has little restraint when it comes to herself. She scarfs down Halloween candy and Christmas cookies and has become obsessed with Bitty ([[Beanie Baby|Beanie]]) Babies <ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 65-6)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2000|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-0532-6}}</ref>, the film [[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]] <ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 17-8)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=2000|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-7407-0532-6}}</ref>, the game [[Nintendogs]], and many other things. She procrastinates almost as badly as her children, playing [[Myst]] and [[Tetris]] and watching [[soap opera]]s when she should be writing her newspaper column.<ref>{{cite book|last=Amend|first=Bill|authorlink=Bill Amend|title=Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain (pp. 45-6)|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|date=1993|location=Kansas City|id=ISBN 0-8362-1706-3}}</ref>

Revision as of 00:14, 18 November 2006

FoxTrot
File:FoxTrot banner.png
First panel of FoxTrot Sunday strips since 1999.
Author(s)Bill Amend
WebsiteFoxTrot.com
Current status/scheduleRunning
Launch dateApril 10, 1988
Syndicate(s)Universal Press Syndicate
Genre(s)Humor, Family

FoxTrot is a daily American comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Amend centering on the daily lives of the Fox family; Andy, Roger, Paige, Peter, and Jason. It has been published since 1988, and is translated into many other languages, including Spanish, Portuguese and Swedish.

The strip covers a wide range of subject matter, including spoofs of pop culture "fads" and popular consumer products. As a Mac owner, Amend has been known to "heartlessly beat upon Microsoft"[1] in his strips. ==Main characters==

Roger

Roger Fox is the father of Paige, Jason, and Peter and the husband of Andy. Head of the household on 1254 North Elm Street[2], he is forty-five years old and works as a B level manager (corporate slave in general) at the fictional Pembrook Corporation. He was born in Chicago and majored in English[3] at Willot College[4] (a parody of Williams College, the rival school of Bill Amend's alma mater, Amherst College).

File:Foxtrot roger.jpg
An early version of Roger Fox

Roger's incompetence and bad looks are running gags. Roger is an obsessed fan of golf[5] and chess[6], but is bad at both of them. He frequently gets caught in sand-traps and loses balls in water hazards; the one time he made a good shot it turned out to be in the opposite direction from the hole.[7] In early strips Roger was a good chess player and frequently beat Andy, but his skills have gone downhill since. He owns an anthropomorphic chess-playing machine which goads him into playing and then beats and mocks him (in recent strips the machine has been replaced by the family computer).[8] Roger, described by Bill Amend as “still trying to catch up with the technology of the 1970s”, is bad at using computers in general. He has spent hours trying to put a floppy into a computer that didn’t have a disk drive [9], spends three hours finding out where the on button is, and once caused his entire office to crash their computers while leading a computer training seminar. Roger’s boss, Mr. Pembrook, had chosen him to lead the seminar because of Roger’s excellent computer based reports, not realizing they had actually been completed by Jason.[10] In later strips Pembrook seems to have caught on and frequently piles assignments on Roger just before the weekend, so that Jason will edit Roger’s apparently mediocre work. Roger is no more successful in his frequent independent ventures than in his regular work. He has tried and failed to make money at day-trading[11], online poker-playing[12], and wine-making[13] and has only succeeded in leading himself further into debt. Envious of his more successful classmates after attending a high school reunion, Roger attempted to write a novel. The resulting spy thriller, which starred himself as a flawless James Bond figure, was so bad that Andy openly wept when the main character didn't die. Roger is a bad cook (he keeps having his grill go off like a rocket engine[14], inducing a lot of smoke, incinerating burgers and burning off his eye-brows or skin with his attempts to barbecue), but an enthusiastic food lover[15]. Consequently, he is mildly overweight and is frequently nagged by Andy to eat healthily and exercise. Roger is very concerned about his lack of hair and has tried wearing toupees[16] and giving his hair pep-talks[17] in an effort to make it grow back. Otherwise, Roger is largely oblivious to his flaws. He enters each new golf game and each new business venture as confidently as the last and mistakenly believes that his children look up to and admire him. He once used a computer program to make a photo of Andy look more attractive and, when Andy retaliated by changing a photo of him into Viggo Mortensen, couldn’t see the difference between it and himself.[18] Aside from this, however, Roger is absymal at the computer. Andy spent hours telling him to point and click. When he clicked, he deleted all of her files. He also causes floppy disks to be destroyed, and claims that computer stuff is intuitive with him.

Roger tries unsuccessfully to involve his family in his interests. He drags Andy to the golf course at five in the morning and forces Peter to caddy for him, sometimes paying him something like a dime a hole or a dollar a game. He is frequently shown begging Andy, Paige, and Jason to play chess with him (the latter two sometimes demand that he pay them first)[19]. Like the father in Calvin and Hobbes, he has poor taste in vacations and insists that his unwilling family accompany him on camping trips to their Uncle Ralph’s cabin, which is where they always go for their summer vacations. Recently, unable to afford his traditional family trip to Uncle Ralph's cabin, he made his children camp with him in their own backyard (Andy didn't attend, threatening to divorce.) He has also taken them camping in the desert (in August, during a record heat wave), to a fake Caribbean resort about 1,000 miles away from a real ocean, and to the mosquito infested "Skeeter Falls" (without bothering to pack any bug spray). The only time Roger ever took his family to a good vacation was Hawaii but only once.[20] At one time, he went on a business trip to Boonhurst, some kind of a dirt-cheap town in a un-named state which were hinted by Roger asking his corporate boss if they have paved the runway yet, and telling his wife that he has to stay at a "fleabag motel". [21]

Taxes are his ultimate bane. He often slaves away night and day on these, ending up with lots of beard stubble, complete with Jason always telling Roger about the math errors he often makes. Recently he attempted to do the taxes on his computer, and he computed a refund of several million dollars.

For all his faults, Roger is a loving and supportive father and much more tolerant of his children’s aggravating behavior than Andy is. He is the only member of the family who believes Peter is any good at sports and, when he found out Peter was actually a bench-warmer, still spent the entire game cheering for him, much to Peter and Paige’s surprise (although this could be because of his own cluelessness). His cheer of choice was "Rah! Rah! Peter!" [22]

Andy

Andrea "Andy" Fox is the mother of Peter, Paige, and Jason and the wife of Roger. She is forty-two-years-old and was an English major in college. Earlier strips portrayed her as a freelance writer or columnist for a newspaper.[23] Although references to her job crop up occasionally, they became more and more rare over the years until the point where she nearly appears to be a stay-at-home mother. Her children still turn to her (but rarely) for help on their papers and English homework. She has called herself "Andyana Fox" spoofing Indiana Jones for the various footballs, baseballs, and rockets she must dodge.

File:Foxtrot andy.JPG
A harried Andrea "Andy" Fox

Andy is most often the straight man to her family’s antics but her efforts to control them and their addiction to television and the Internet are a source of humor in and of themselves. She makes them eat "seemingly-inedible" health-food (including lima bean cobbler, tofu curry, and beetloaf) which she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that they can’t stand. She often nags Peter and Paige about their bad habits, like procrastinating on their homework, their lack of respect for Shakespeare, and literature in general[24][25]. A proud member of M.A.G.G. (Mothers Against Gory Games), she confiscates Jason and Peter’s violent video games and has once been offended that Donkey Kong does not wear pants. To some degree, she also seems to disapprove of their playing video games in general, as she deliberately buys computers unsuited to gaming. She also gives them "practical gifts" for Christmas such as thesaurusi. She refuses to “waste” money on heating and keeps the thermostat so low that it freezes soft drinks, milk, hot chocolate[26], electronic devices[27], steam rising from a cup of coffee, and oxygen[28]. She is extremely competitive with her own mother, one of the world's greatest cooks, who is less strict and more in tune with the family's tastes (especially in cuisine and gifts), so is therefore much better appreciated and respected by them.

Ironically, Andy has little restraint when it comes to herself. She scarfs down Halloween candy and Christmas cookies and has become obsessed with Bitty (Beanie) Babies [29], the film Titanic [30], the game Nintendogs, and many other things. She procrastinates almost as badly as her children, playing Myst and Tetris and watching soap operas when she should be writing her newspaper column.[31]

Peter

Peter Fox is Andy and Roger’s oldest child, a 16-year-old high school junior. He almost always wears a purple and white (wearing a different for school baseball) baseball cap with the letter A on it (a possible reference to Amend's alma mater, Amherst College; the baseball team the Atlanta Braves; or simply the author's last name) a grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans. During the summer, he often works at a movie theatre, where he cleans the bathrooms, collects tickets, wears movie supporting costumes, and has spent his entire paycheck on food from the concession stand.

File:FoxTrot Peter.GIF
Peter Fox, with his famous hat

Peter fantasizes about being a football/baseball/basketball star and about being the lead guitarist in a rock band like his idol, Bruce Springsteen. However, he is bad at both sports[32] and music[33], getting cut from the team or made a bench warmer and tormenting his family with his horrible guitar-playing. He even once took to chewing tobacco, which probably didn't help much. Like his father, he is oblivious to his incompetence, believing that his coach’s insults are only jokes and brushing off his family’s attempts to stop him from playing his guitar. Peter is famous for his entirely insatiable appetite[34] and an extremely high metabolism compared to Jughead in the Archie comics. He eats constantly and drinks special milkshakes in a failed effort to gain weight (usually in an effort to look more attractive at pools and water parks)[35]. He once succeeded to gain weight when the pizza parlor had an all-you-can-eat campaign which he spent the entire night scarfing down pizzas until dawn and left being extremely obese, celebrating his victory in gaining weight. However, he lost all the weight he gained in only a few days and moped about it for a time.[36] His father and mother, who are always trying to lose weight, are envious of him, and Andy is frustrated that he takes seconds to eat the food that took her hours to cook. Other recurring gags include Peter’s frighteningly bad driving[37] and his ongoing dandruff problem[38].

Peter can be callous, but often it is because he does not know that he is. He once tricked Paige into thinking she had a secret admirer and could not understand why she was so hurt when she found out it was a joke.[39] However, he can also take things deeply to heart, as evidenced by his emotion upon seeing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.[40] In very early strips, he was unpopular with girls but late in the strip’s first year he met and began dating Denise, who happens to be blind. He is a loving and attentive boyfriend, writing her mushy Valentine’s Day poems and once sacrificing his own grade on a test to help her study. He briefly broke up with her because he thought it was unhealthy for them to date only one person during high-school, but was talked out of it by Andy and, after much groveling, Denise accepted him back. At times, Peter tends to be jealous. When his girlfriend returned from a vacation in Italy, she kept talking about a guy named Guido. Peter assumed that he was a hunky Italian guy when Guido was actually just an old man being friendly.

Paige

Paige Fox is Andy and Roger’s middle child, a 14-year-old who recently became a high-school freshman. She is always portrayed with her hair in a pony-tail, although other characters sometimes suggest she change her hair-style or claim she has changed it.[41]

File:Foxtrot paige.JPG
Paige Fox, doing something she doesn't normally do

Paige makes average grades in school but has poor study habits (though not quite as bad as Peter's) and prefers shopping and chasing after boys with her friend Nicole to studying. However, she is not very good at science, and needs Jason's help in math. While she has no defined favorite subject, she is seen working for a school newspaper, and once dreams of herself being featured in embarrassing headlines in Journalism class, indicating that she may one day become a journalist. She once borrowed a copy of Great Expectations from her mother to smash a spider with, rather than use and potentially damage the copy of Cosmo Girl she was reading. When she found out during a trip to Washington D.C. that the National Mall was not a shopping center, she sobbed.[42]

During her frequent naps, she normally dreams about a dashing Frenchman named Pierre but in real life has only succeeded in attracting the class geek, Morton Goldthwait, whom she spends much of her time avoiding. Occasionally, she has bad taste in prom dates. one year, she went out with Chris Morrisey, the biggest sleaze in school, which Peter begged her not to go for her own good, suggesting all kinds of defense against Chris and one time made a threat against him. During the prom, Chris wouldn't stop hitting on her, forcing Paige to kick him. In the end, Peter said "I told you so".

She has tried learning to cook to attract boys but the food she makes is inedible (with often illogical substitutions) and the process of cooking it fills the house with smoke. [43] During Thanksgiving, Roger found his mouth glued shut after sampling some of Paige's pumpkin pie.[44] Another time, when she couldn't find baking soda, she substituted Diet Pepsi instead.[45]

Because Paige naps in class and procrastinates almost as much as Peter does, she sometimes hires Jason to tutor her and help her with her homework (especially in geometry). However, Jason often gives her incorrect, “joke” answers, such as telling her that Shakespeare's first name was "Chet". Paige is often scared of Jason’s pet iguana, Quincy.[46] Yet, on one occasion, she appears to only fear Quincy when Jason is around to be blamed. She yells at and usually hits Jason for bringing Quincy near her, but seems not to mind Quincy when Jason is gone.

Jason

Jason Fox is Andy and Roger’s youngest child, a 10-year old fifth grader with a somewhat omnipotent mind.

He is the smartest person in the family, and is often required to help Roger with his taxes and work assignments and Paige with her homework. He is particularly gifted with computers, having created his own operating system, written a web browser before breakfast[47], repeatedly hacked into government computers, as well as CNN in order to insult his sister, made a video game dubbed "0.000005 Life", a spoof of Half Life 2 to only operate on his "iFruit" computer[48], and once brought down the entire Internet with his “Darth Jason” computer virus[49]. He has an A++++ average in school, but aggravates the teachers with his overly complicated answers[50]and is frequently in trouble for disrupting class (often by not giving others a chance to answer).

File:Foxtrot jason.JPG
Jason Fox, using the iFruit

Despite his intelligence, Jason is often unrealistic. He thinks that the X-Files is a documentary and entertains many outrageous and unsuccessful money-making schemes[51]. He has developed plans for a dinosaur-themed hotel in Las Vegas, a skyscraper comic book shop, and an underground Star Wars-themed amusement park complete with life-sized Death Star ride and tried to sell his mother a photocopied sketch of his own comicbook super-hero, Slugman, for over a hundred dollars. He seems to believe that his parents can afford to give him thousands of dollars if he only begs them enough.

Jason spends much of his time tormenting his family. He frightens Paige with his iguana[52], and plays numerous tricks on her of every sort, tampers with Roger’s food, and tricks Peter into taking unpleasant food related bets. Jason’s other hobbies include playing video and computer games such as Doomathon and World of Warquest, and making websites about and dressing up to attend The Lord of the Rings, The X-Files, Star Wars, Star Trek, and super-hero movies.[53] In one strip, he says that he likes Wikipedia, posting a picture of Paige under the warthog and rabies articles, a feat which fans of the strip imitated. Unlike his father and brother, Jason has no interest in sports and, despite their efforts, misunderstands basic sports concepts[54] (although he does play football with Peter from time to time). Jason takes the holidays very seriously, especially Christmas and Halloween. We often see him dressing up for these occasions. On Halloween, creativity, mischief, and candy seem to control Jason. He likes to slave away on Halloween decorations, mostly to irriate his own family. He can be either carving pumpkins or setting booby traps. The only thing he has a hard time with is choosing a perfect costume for him use trick or treating, usually with his best-friend Marcus.

Jason is a complete World of Warquest fanatic. He claims to average 7 hours of play every day, although he was supposed to only play for one hour on school nights. He has encountered many a comical antic throughout his gaming career; for one, his nemesis, Eileen Jacobson, tricked Jason in playing with him by disguising herself as a high-level male paladin who took Jason under "his" wing. Another time, Jason found an ultimate weapon inside a deep cave, but was disconnected before he could pick it up. His groans of dissatisfaction were audible for miles. Also, he got in trouble because he played all night against his mother's wishes. Jason's alter ego is a huge orc by the name of Grog Malblood. Recently, a beta expansion just opened and Jason wasn't invited to participate, causing him to believe that Blizzgames Entertainment (the developer of World of Warquest) has overlooked him somehow. He once turned into a girl (in his dreams)[55]

Jason is best friends with Marcus Jones. Although Jason claims to hate girls (and apparently still believes in cooties), he has a crush on Eileen Jacobson. [56] Jason has competed with both Marcus and Eileen for good grades but lost both times because of his overconfidence (although he usually gets better grades than either of them, which is perhaps where his overconfidence comes from). He acts queasy when he sees Eileen Jacobson and hacks into government computers to delete records of his calls to her to keep it a secret he likes her. He has gone on dates with her, however, without really realizing what they were. He has gone to an ice cream parlor with her once, held hands at the ice rink, and once admitted he liked her, leaving himself to spend two weeks trying to cover it up, hurting her feelings, and then trying to get her to like him again.[57]

As for sports activities, Jason is terrible at them. He can't even get the concept of the games right. One time, he and Marcus attempted to play baseball. Their ideas of the game were totally off the wall. They said players used a big, wooden bat (which what they had was plywood in the shape of an actual bat), confusing the term "hitting a tater" (a home run) as using an actual potato as a baseball, using their mother's good china as home plate, and their idea of the "batter's box" was a cardboard box. But the worst thing Jason has to be bad at, is Ice Skating. He is so bad at it, he looses control on the rubber mats that surround the rink.

Quincy

File:Foxtrot Quincy.png
Quincy, in a rare moment of rest

Quincy is Jason's pet iguana. Unlike most comic strip animals, Quincy is not usually anthropomorphic. He enjoys chewing up Paige’s things (her clothes, her Backsync Boys photo, and even her ponytail) and vomiting on the carpets and furniture. Jason sometimes tapes a camcorder to his back and calls it the "Iguana-Cam" in which all videos eventually meet a disastrous end. He is afraid of cats, even small kittens. He owns an Iguana Ball which he got for a present but often ends up either falling down the stairs[58], or getting kicked by Paige, who knows how to play soccer. He once choked on Paige's shoelace, but got saved by Paige.[59]Jason also uses him as the face of assorted characters, the most recent being "Don Iguan, the cold-blooded lover," a chick magnet who tries to give Peter advice on how to get the girls.

Supporting characters

See also: List of minor FoxTrot characters

Marcus Jones

Marcus is Jason's best friend, with whom often he emulates science fiction, usually Star Trek, and bothers Paige (though he does not bother her as much as Jason does).[60] He is the most frequently appearing non-family character, and the only African-American character. He also enjoys video games, and he plays Dungeons & Dragons (and Houses and Humans)[61] with Jason on occasion. Like Jason, Marcus enjoys school and TV, dislikes being outside and doesn't seem to like girls, but his dislike of girls isn't as strong as Jason's. Marcus has four sisters (Doreen, Lisa, Lana, Cybil). His mother is a nurse, and his father is a scientist of some sort but except for Marcus himself, they are all unseen characters.

Eileen Jacobson

Eileen is sometimes Jason's nemesis, sometimes semi-friend, whom he doesn't want to admit he secretly likes. A Harry Potter fan (a character Jason loath's to admit he's also a fan of), Eileen did not appear in the comic until 1995, when she got a higher grade than Jason on a math test (they got a 104 and a 102, respectively), and ended up going out for ice cream with him. Eileen also showed up when Jason and Marcus went to summer camp. She has made quite a few appearances since and Jason eventually admitted he liked her. However, Jason's constant insistence on hiding their relationship began to annoy Eileen, and as a result, she became angry at Jason and they decided to stop being a couple. It seems she still has feelings for Jason, though, since she has tricked Jason into spending time with her in exchange for something Jason wants (for example, the time Eileen made Jason be her partner on a field trip to the science museum in exchange for a holo-foil Charizard Pokémon card;[62] or when she had him go ice skating with her).[63] After Marcus gave her his World of Warquest screenname, she helped Jason out in the game and finally let out that she was a girl, and later admitted the whole story, all through the game. Jason acts "queasy" when he sees her and hacks government computers to delete the record of his calls to her to keep it secret that he likes her.

Steve Riley

Steve is Peter's best friend from high school. He owns several electric guitars and an amp set that Peter sometimes borrows, much to Roger and Andy's dismay. In addition to sharing Peter's passion for microwave burritos (especially in the wee hours of the morning), Steve also has a job at Luigi's, the local pizza parlor.[64]

Denise Russo

File:Denise foxtrot.gif
Denise Russo

Denise is Peter's girlfriend. Denise's parents have been heard to speak, but do not show up often on Peter's visits to Denise's house. Denise is clearly the one in control of the relationship, and knows exactly how to get what she wants from Peter, whether it's just for him to put his arm around her or to take her out to dinner at La Maison Rouge, the most expensive restaurant in town.[65] Despite her sometimes manipulative nature, she seems to genuinely like Peter, but once admitted that she liked him because with his flawed nature, no other girl would take him (early strips, which indicate Peter's lack of success getting a girlfriend, seem to confirm this). Peter attempted to break up with her once in late 1989 so he could see other girls and "gain experience in the field of dating," but his attempt ended in failure when he discovered he missed her. Denise is blind, which is an occasional source of humor or more serious storylines in the strip. Peter once punched one of his classmates for joking that all his dates with Denise were "blind dates."[66] On Denise's first date with Peter, she asked to "read" his face with her hands, explaining that it was "like reading Braille, in a way." When Peter asked what it said, she replied, "R...O...B...E...R...T...R...E...D...F...O...R...D.".[67] Jason has occasionally claimed to be Peter while speaking to her on the phone or in person, but has never managed to fool her.

Nicole

Nicole is Paige's best friend, also fashion-obsessed but somewhat more level-headed than Paige. She seems to have better luck with boys than Paige (which doesn't say much), which has caused problems in their relationship a few times (such as when Nicole was the only one of the two to find a prom date).[68]

Morton Goldthwait

Morton is the "biggest geek in school", according to Paige. Apparently, the entire science department calls him "Sir".[69] He has a crush on Paige and hasn't given up, despite what she thinks of him, even inviting her to a Halloween party at his house one year, which Paige counted on as being the halloween party from purgatory, as one from hell would have been cool.. He took the SATs as a freshman and was mad that he got a 1590 (one raw score below perfect at the time the strip ran).[70] He was also a counselor at Camp Bohrmore over the summer, and ruled his cabin with an iron fist. Jason and Marcus both had the misfortune of being assigned to Goldthwait's cabin when they went to Camp Bohrmore. Until he learned of Morton's crush on Paige, Jason had planned to set Morton up on a date with Paige as revenge. Paige has stated that "This is the kid who makes origami fusion reactors out of his lunch napkins, is in a math class she can't even pronounce, and whose personal goal is to find a typo a day in the math textbook! And you call him merely a stud?"

Miss O'Malley

Miss O'Malley has been the teacher of Jason's and Marcus' class since 1991. She was the replacement for Jason and Marcus' former teacher, Ms. Grinchley. Considerably younger and more "on the ball" than Ms. Grinchley, she appears to have a marginally better handle on Jason as well, much to his dismay. Of course, this seems to encourage Jason to try even harder to get under her skin.[71] Sometimes Jason succeeds (as when, since he wasn't sure which math chapter Miss O'Malley had assigned for homework, he proceeded to do a problem set from every math and science textbook he could find), and sometimes he fails (as when he brought Quincy in for show-and-tell, thinking Quincy would frighten Miss O'Malley, and she instead thought he was cute).

Places in FoxTrot

The Fox Family home is located at 1254 North Elm Street, with the specific city a mystery, as characters always refer to their home as "Suburbia." Older comics suggest the family lives in Kansas City, Missouri, as Peter and Roger are big Chiefs fans (now any desired team). However, newer comics suggest the family lives nearby Chicago, as Roger uses that airport for business trips, and Andy was given Chicago Bulls tickets as a gift once. Further evidence includes a Field Trip bearing uncanny similarities to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Complete with planetarium and Foulcault Pendulum. 

Andy also went to Lollapalooza with Paige during her mid-life crisis in the early 90's. Some fans have suggested that the Foxes live in Hillsdale, Illinois (a suburb of the Quad Cities) or Hillsdale, New Jersey, as an early strip shows Paige and Andy shopping at a certain Hillsdale Shopping Center (the Hillsdale theory is supported by the fact that the high school sports teams have an "H" somewhere on their uniforms). However, when Bill Amend was asked about it, he said:

"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, CA, where I used to shop as a teenager."[citation needed]

Uncle Ralph's Cabin is a typical camping spot for the Fox family.[72] The location of the cabin is never explicitly stated in the comics, even relative to where the Foxes live. However, one could assume it is fairly isolated, because the family seems to have a long drive and one time when Roger locked his keys in the car, Paige worried they would be stuck forever since they couldn't contact anyone.

Fun-Fun Mountain is an amusement park.[73] There is a Hall of Vice Presidents exhibit (similar to the Hall of Presidents), and a sign in the park labels a mosquito the "Mickey Mosquito". There are roller coasters, including the Drop-O-Death, a log ride, whirling coffee cups, and a fun house. The food is extremely expensive. For example, Andy bought a snow cone for $20.00.

Fun-Fun Universe is another amusement park that seems to be a parody of a real one, and in this case it is the Walt Disney World Resort. There is a hotel that is connected to the actual amusement park by unirail, a glass-bottomed boat, and a "sky-tube." The rides mentioned include a log ride and several roller coasters.[74] It has also at one time have thought to have been a parody of Worlds of Fun, an amusement park located in Missouri. However, Amend denied this, saying he had no idea there was a place with such a name.

A very important roller coaster in Fun-Fun Universe is the Voodoo Mountain Bobsled Ride. The ride is supposedly closed down every morning, but only for show. That way, riders will be "scared to death not only by the ride, but by the dread that the thing wasn't built very well." Peter believes this theory, assuming that what looks to be a worker welding the track is animatronic. Like Fun-Fun Mountain, the food for sale at the park is very expensive. Roger's Chili Fun-Fun Burger and fries cost him $41.00.

The Fox family once went on a two-week camping trip to Cactus Flats, a desert community in Arizona. According to a pamphlet, Cactus Flats was the home of the Muckatoo Indian tribe until the whole tribe died of heat stroke. The desert is also home to various snakes (including rattlesnakes), lizards, scorpions, spiders such as tarantulas and black widows, and mountain lions as well as mosquitos.

On another one of the family's camping trips, the Foxes camped at Skeeter Falls. According to Roger, Skeeter Falls is an eight-hour drive from their house. It is 100 miles (160 km) away from the nearest city and the grounds cover 400,000 acres (1600 km²). The falls get their name from the mosquitoes that live there. Skeeter Falls has the most mosquitoes per unit area of any place in the world during August. There is also a geyser that erupts every 24 hours, at 3:38 am, as well as rivers, mountains, and "200-foot" (60 m) trees.

Camp Bohrmore is an eight week co-ed summer science camp. The camp contains waterfalls, hiking trails, a redwood grove, a T-1 line in every cabin, computers, lasers, and a paleontology lab. This is also where Jason and Marcus met Phoebe and Eugene Wu. Morton Goldthwait served as camp counselor to Epsilon cabin which included Jason, Marcus, Hawkins, and Eugene. At camp, Eileen and Phoebe would often play tricks on Marcus and Jason, such as luring them into poison-ivy infested fields, putting snails in their bedsheets, and putting pepper in their pudding cups. Jason and Marcus attempted revenge by trying to sabotage their experiment, but sabotaged their own by mistake. However, at the end of camp, they made a truce with Eileen and Phoebe, and eventually joined their friendship club.

Boonhurst is a small town, location unknown. Roger once went there to finish a business deal on orders from Pembrook. It is evidently a less-developed city, as Roger asked Pembrook if they had finished paving the runway yet. When Roger missed his flight to Boonhurst, he was forced to go through several connections; from Chicago to Dallas to Los Angeles to Atlanta to Portland to Denver to Charlotte to Boonhurst.[75]

Boonhurst is likely a reference to the town of Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters of Wal-Mart.

The Isles of Fun-Fun Caribbeanny Resort is an artificial Caribbean resort, probably a parody of the real-life Caribbean Beach Resort in Walt Disney World, utilizing reproduced island life with "state-of the-art water park technology." The resort has special Caribbean-themed rooms, such as the Limbo Suite, which features a low ceiling, and Calypso music in the elevators. There are many Caribbean-esque activities as well, such as snorkeling, body boarding, voodoo doll puppetry, and steel drum lessons. In fact, the resort even schedules fake hurricanes from time to time.

However, many aspects of the resort are fake (hence the word "Caribbeanny"). The ocean is just a big pool (complete with chlorine) with walls painted to resemble the ocean (which at least one of the kids ran into), and the steel drum music at the beach consists of a staff person playing the synthesizer. However, according to Andrea, who had been adamantly opposed to going, the children enjoyed their trip.

Popular culture

File:Foxtrot wikipedia cartoons.png
Two FoxTrot cartoons that have mentioned Wikipedia so far. In the top one (May 7, 2005), Jason introduces the site to Peter. In the bottom one (September 7, 2006), Peter attempts to use the Thomas Edison article to do a school assignment.

In addition to typical "family" humor, the strip has many stories built around fandom, nerdiness and popular culture. The characters (especially Andy and Jason) frequently have new obsessions or interests which reflect the time period at which the strip was published.

Andy, for example, has had obsessions with collecting "Bitty Babies" (Beanie Babies, later because there was such thing), the movie Titanic, the Nintendo DS game Nintendogs, and her Mango-Kiwi-colored iFruit computer[76] in the past.

Similarly, Jason, as a stereotypical nerd, loves and frequently quotes Star Wars, Star Trek, Spider-Man, the X-Files, The Lord of the Rings and has tried to make 'remakes' of four popular movies, The Blair Witch Project, Jurassic Park, Finding Nemo and King Kong. Jason's obsession with The Lord of the Rings (he had memorized the books word-for-word, and almost starred in the movie,)[77] is one of the few fascinations he shares with Paige, who developed a crush on Orlando Bloom. Jason has also attempted to make an improved version of the popular computer games Half-Life and Myst, a competitor to Microsoft Operating System Windows 98,[78] and sent in suggestions to Lucasfilm to digitally insert him into the Star Wars Special Edition Trilogy. He is also an avid player of 'World of Warquest', a pseudonym for the real-life online video game World of Warcraft, and there are many strips where the joke centers around World of Warcraft specific humor. He has also created a "Darth Jason" computer virus, as a product for his "Jasonzonbayhoodotcom" internet stock binge. The news network CNN is also mentioned in the strip, only rarely (most often with Jason hacking into its teleprompters).

Peter has been shown to be a Bruce Springsteen fan consistently since the early 90s. An early strip featured a headline "Cartoonist to tour with Bruce", presumably Amend. Peter also has been known to like Pearl Jam and Guns N Roses

Fox News is occasionally referenced, often in a negative way.

Jason also once styled his hair with hair gel in order to look like Yami Yugi from the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. In fact, he even held up a deck of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and told his father, "I'm off to the Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament", which shows that he even has a love for anime.

Scientific references

Amend majored in physics at Amherst College, and this is reflected in FoxTrot's frequent inclusion of complex mathematical or physics 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 several pages of code written in the Java programming language).[79] 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.

Style

Passage of time

Similarly to most comic strips, the characters do not age. For example, an early 1990 storyline involves Paige making an effort to go from being a "child of the 80's" to a "woman of the 90's". As she is still 14, she now would have been born by 1991 or 1992. In 2003, on the strips 15th anniversary, The foxtrot site stated that "Paige wonders if she's still 14."

There was an in-joke on this subject in a strip published shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, 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.

The comic strips change along with the seasons; the kids go back to school in September, the family celebrates important holidays on their respective dates, and one will find the characters tanning themselves or throwing water balloons during the summer.

In the earlier strips, the family would only live in the present-tense: that is, the family would only refer to the present — or, as in the case of a storyline, the very near future — but never past events (save for once when Jason remarked "you're still mad about the car, aren't you?," which referred to an earlier time when he inadvertently wrecked the car playing "Mad Max"). However, more recent storylines have broken this "rule", most notably when referring to Jason's summer at Camp Bohrmore. In cases where the past must be referenced it's always "last year", even if the referenced storyline happened more than a year ago.

Parodies and subtleties

Cartoonists and Comics

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 join NASCAR," or "Cartoonist to direct Jurassic Park II." This is usually accompanied by a caricature of Bill Amend himself. There are also times where one can see a Calvin and Hobbes comic on the back of the newspaper.

In scenes with large crowds, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes can often be seen in the background.[80] 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; sometimes, they are even shown for what they really are, as comics in the newspaper. In one comic, Jason and Marcus are shown in a store called "Calvin's Hobbies,"[81] an obvious reference to Calvin and Hobbes. He also creates a snow Calvin and Hobbes making a snowman with a hole in its center after being shot with a snow cannon and cannonball. (In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin often builds snowmen going through painful moments like being eaten or buried.) There are two other snowmen, depicting Calvin and Hobbes, building more snowmen. Jason says, "This way it's an homage, not a ripoff."[82]

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.

Jason sometimes attempts to send other cartoonists his ideas for their comic strips, often pitching his ideas to Peter. When Aaron McGruder went on sabbatical from The Boondocks, Jason wanted to fill in for him. Peter pointed out that Jason knew nothing about black culture, and could not write political commentary without offending some readers. He also became frustrated at other cartoonists taking vacations without using his submissions, specifically Cathy, The Family Circus,[83] Pearls Before Swine, Zits, For Better or For Worse, and Garfield. However, almost all of his strips are simply some way of insulting Paige, with the exception of his Garfield submission, which he edited to insult Peter when he criticized him for insulting Paige. Often, one panel of each strip would show Jason's depiction of the strip in question.

In addition, in many older strips, the characters of FoxTrot can be seen reading Luther and Locke comic strips, a reference to the naming scheme used by Bill Waterson for Calvin and Hobbes (Luther and Calvin were both religious figures, and Hobbes and Locke were both philosophers. Also worth noting, Calvin and Luther, and Hobbes and Locke, are historically regarded as having conflicting philosophies.)

Also, in a few strips, Andy gets obsessed with Dilbert, describing several possible reasons for its success.[84]

The comic also features references to The Far Side, such as that the family drinks "Larson Farms" milk, whose logo is one of Larson's famous cows.[85] Jason also drew several comics insulting Paige when he heard that the author of The Far Side was going to retire

Theaters

In the cinema where Peter works you can also often see names such as Trek Wars.[86] The week Garfield: The Movie came out, Peter dressed up as Garfield to promote the movie.[87] Often signs in the theater are edited to have a humorous effect (such as "Mission Impossible 2: The Comic Strip Deadline").

Foods

Many products seen in the strip have altered names, such as:

The Foxes often get their pizza from "Dominics'" (Domino's Pizza, in which a few comics call it its real name) or "Luigi's" (Mario's Pizza) Also parodying Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. Series.[93] In one strip, Peter is eating from a bag of "Bugles," but in the next panel, the bag changes to "Trumpets," and in the last panel, the bag reads "Flugelhorns."

The fast-food restaurant that the Foxes occasionally patronize has two M's back-to-back, parodying the McDonald's logo. Roger is not allowed to go to "Costclub" (Costco, Price Club, Sam's Club, BJ's Wholesale Club) by himself, because he always buys way too much there.

Magazines

Most of the magazines shown in the comic strip are parodies of real magazines or magazine genres. For example "Fourteen" magazine (Seventeen),[94] "Thyme" (Time),[95] "Guy's Life" (Boys' Life), or Life (with a picture of the grim reaper on the front), "Chick" (except with a baby bird on the cover), and (at least for a while) "Illustrated Sports" (Sports Illustrated),[96] or, most recently "Vōg" ("Vogue").Roger is sometimes seen reading Golfster magazine. Paige is often seen reading copies of Self with a photograph of Paige on the cover.[97]

Games

Many video games in the comic strip are Portmanteau of two or more different names. Examples include:

The same occurs with 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). Note: The controller of the Gamestation 2 still resembles that of a Nintendo 64. Also, the accessories to these games systems are altered, such as the Rambo Pack, which is a spoof of the Rumble Pack, (however, unlike its real-life counterpart, it does more than just vibrate, especially when Jason instructed his father have his character touch an electrified fence on the screen).

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, Super Mario Universe and Super Earthworm Mario Country 3, while other games had their real names featured in the strip, such as the Super Mario Bros. series, Carmageddon and Myst. Other examples of real names used in the strip are the Nintendo DS, its game Nintendogs, the game console Wii, the Diablo series, the Doom series, and Star Wars Battlefront).

Andy has also joined the organization MAGG (Mothers Against Gory Games, Visibly a parody of MADD(Mothers against drunk driving)), partly out of concern for the level of violence in the games Jason and Peter played, but her primary motivation most likely was to make sure they stopped altogether. The list of video games approved by MAGG included such titles as "Nice City," "Pacifist-Man," "Ms. Pacifist-Man," "Eternal Lightness," and "Resident Good" (takeoffs of, respectively, "Vice City," "Pac-Man," "Ms. Pac-Man," "Eternal Darkness," and "Resident Evil").[99]

Bands

Occasionally Paige talks about a band she adores called "The BackSync Boys," which is a combination of the boy bands Backstreet Boys and N'Sync. Paige once got an autographed picture of The BackSync Boys. Andy said that she would take care of the picture; however, Quincy slipped out of his cage and ate the photo. Paige made her mother do her bidding until she got 20 copies from the mail, the BackSync Boys not keeping track of whom they sent autographed photos to (Paige sent an abundance of letters to them).[100] The strip also usually mentioned both bands as a whole. Another strip shows a poster in her room of a band named "Henson" (Hanson and the Muppets--via Jim Henson), portraying three long-haired teen-age Muppet style boys.

The strip has also frequently made reference to real-life bands and musicians. Peter listens to Bruce Springsteen (his idol), U2, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Metallica, and Guns N' Roses. In one early strip, Paige gossiped to Peter's girlfriend, Denise, that Peter liked to dance in his underwear to George Michael records. Paige is a Britney Spears fan and was also shown listening to Madonna record albums and cassettes in early strips. Andy also appears to be a fan of classic rock, as her old record collection includes such artists as The Eagles, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, and Jefferson Airplane. In one strip, Jason and Marcus played Frisbee with Andy's records and were surprised to find that Led Zeppelin flew farther than the others.

Other subtleties

The first one of these 'subtleties' to appear was a clothes dryer which had the brand name "Dry Queen 1000" on it. There is also a partial view of a bottle of bleach, and readers can see "OX" on the label, suggesting the product is Clorox. The first subtlety to be shown in a color Sunday strip appeared April 12, 1988 in the "throwaway panel" identifying the strip. It shows Jason eating "Honey Skulls" (Honeycomb) cereal.

Often times it can be seen that one thing in the background changes in the next panel. For example, the position or expression of characters in a picture may change, or a fish hanging from a mobile may explode by the end of the strip.

Also in Foxtrot is the infamous picture of fruit in their kitchen. The fruit in the picture change between apples, pears, watermelon, cherries, and even a large bowl of fruit, sometimes several times per strip.

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!"

Peter's posters in his room also are often edited to read things like "Baywitch", taken from the television show Bewitched and Baywatch (almost all of Peter's posters are a parody of Baywatch).

Also, in one early Sunday strip, the strip appears to break through the fourth wall, because on the back of the newspaper Roger is reading, the first 2 panels of that same strip can clearly be made out.[101]

Sometimes in Andy's office, where the iFruit is located, you can see a partial fog covered picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. In the next panel that the picture is shown, the fog gets higher until it completely covers the bridge.

In another strip where Paige is working on a dissection and talking to a boy about the prom, in one panel, one of the frogs eyes opens to look at Paige, then goes back to an "X".

Computers in FoxTrot

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 a new computer which although not specifically named, was probably a Mac Classic II from the design and the time. The next computer "upgrade" is silent; there are no strips referring to the family buying a new computer. It is probably a Power Mac of some sort, modular, with a CPU and a monitor, and is "three years old" by the time the family opts for a new one. Again, this computer is not named, but many strips refer to it as an Apple computer. (Bill Amend is a vocal fan of Apple computers.)

The iFruit

The Fox family's current computer is an iFruit (based on the original Apple iMac), a computer Andy purchased in a 1999 storyline after Roger's disastrous attempt at earning a living through online trading ended with him selling the family's old computer.

Jason originally wanted a computer with a fancy new 3D chip, dual processors, and 'gobs' of RAM, but Andy didn't listen to him so they ended up with the iFruit. 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 color schemes (or "flavors", with the Fox family's iFruit being mango-kiwi) persuades his mother to buy all manners of peripherals, such as scanners and CD burners.[102] The iFruit has also been upgraded and taken apart by Jason many times. However, the iFruit cannot handle most of the games Jason wants to play (Macintosh computers are not able to play Windows video games, such as Half-Life 2, or Doom 3), and Jason wanted to get a Windows computer. The iFruit 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 made of bullet-proof plastic (just like the original G3 iMac on which it is based), and is durable enough that even Roger cannot damage it, although in one strip he pushed it off the desk when Andy told him that it needed "backing up."[103]

FoxTrot books

File:FoxTrot How Come I'm Always Luigi - 2006.JPG
The newest FoxTrot collection, How Come I'm Always Luigi?
For the complete list of FoxTrot books, please see List of FoxTrot books.

There have been 33 FoxTrot books published so far, all by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Of the 33 books, 23 are collections and 10 are anthologies. The anthologies are comprised of the two or three previous collections, and include Sunday strips in color.

Merchandising of FoxTrot

FoxTrot books may be found on Amazon.com here, and assorted items such as clocks, cards, mugs, and other items may be purchased at Cafepress.com here.

During the late 1990s, the character of Jason Fox was licensed to Wolfram Research as a product spokesman for its Mathematica software package.[104]

References

  1. ^ Amend, Bill. "Bill Amend's Home Page". Retrieved October 15, 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (p. 8). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  3. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Death By Field Trip (p. 73). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1391-4.
  4. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (p. 70). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  5. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 70). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  6. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 90). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  7. ^ Amend, Bill (2004). Am I a Mutant or What!(p. 92). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-4132-2.
  8. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (pp. 51-2). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  9. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 239). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  10. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (p. 102-3). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  11. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 227-8). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  12. ^ Amend, Bill (2005). How Come I'm Always Luigi? (pp. 117-9). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5683-4.
  13. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Encyclopedias Brown and White (pp. 57-9). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1850-9.
  14. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 205). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  15. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 219). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  16. ^ Amend, Bill (1993). Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain (p. 101). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1706-3.
  17. ^ Amend, Bill (1995). Wildly FoxTrot (p. 122). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-0416-6.
  18. ^ Amend, Bill (2005). My Hot Dog Went Out, Can I Have Another? (p. 7). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5441-6.
  19. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (p. 8). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  20. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (pp. 213-4; 219-220). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  21. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 213-6). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  22. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 191-2). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  23. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (pp. 234-5). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  24. ^ Amend, Bill ((1995)). Take Us To Your Mall. Kansas City: Andrews Mcmeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1780-2. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Encyclopedias Brown and White (p. 105). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1850-9.
  26. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 155). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  27. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Death By Field Trip (p. 79). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1391-4.
  28. ^ Amend, Bill (2005). How Come I'm Always Luigi? (p. 47). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5683-4.
  29. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 65-6). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  30. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 17-8). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  31. ^ Amend, Bill (1993). Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain (pp. 45-6). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1706-3.
  32. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (pp. 191-2). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  33. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 181). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  34. ^ Amend, Bill (2005). How Come I'm Always Luigi? (p. 16). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5683-4.
  35. ^ Amend, Bill (2000). Assorted FoxTrot (p. 197). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-0532-6.
  36. ^ Amend, Bill (2005). My Hot Dog Went Out, Can I Have Another? (pp. 77-9). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5441-6.
  37. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Death By Field Trip (p. 125). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1391-4.
  38. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Death By Field Trip (p. 43). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1391-4.
  39. ^ Amend, Bill (1997). FoxTrot Beyond a Doubt (pp. 192-5). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-2694-1.
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