FoxTrot
FoxTrot is a daily American comic strip by cartoonist Bill Amend centering on the daily lives of the Fox family. Syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, it began syndication on April 10, 1988, and is now carried by over 1,000 newspapers. Twenty-seven FoxTrot books have also been published and have sold over two million copies to date.
About the strip
Popular culture
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), the movie Titanic, the Nintendo DS game Nintendogs, and her Mango-Kiwi-colored iFruit computer 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 three popular movies, The Blair Witch Project, Finding Nemo and King Kong. He has also attempted to make an improved version of the popular computer games Half-Life and Myst, and sent in suggestions to Lucasfilm to digitally insert him into the Star Wars Special Edition Trilogy.
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 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.
Passage of time
Similar to most comic strips, the characters do not age. This leads to amusing situations if a fan reads earlier strips. 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 not have been born by 1991/1992. There's also a comic where Andy tells Jason that Roger donated blood (even though he is scared of needles) because "We all have to grow up, kiddo", and Jason remarks "Whoa, did I stumble into 'For Better or For Worse'?", a comic where the characters actually 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 siblings 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." 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. 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", an obvious reference to Calvin and Hobbes.
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.
Another occasion, Jason had built a snowman with a cannonball shot through him. (In Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin often builds snowmen going through painful moments like being eaten or buried.) There are two other snowmen, depicting Calvin & Hobbes, building more snowmen. Jason says, "This way it's an homage, not a ripoff."
Theaters
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 Garfield: The Movie came out, Peter dressed up as Garfield to promote the movie. 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 "Chips McCoy" (Chips Ahoy!), "Brucy Juice" (Juicy Juice), "Toridos" (Doritos, Tostitos), "Tofu Helper"(Hamburger Helper), "Cap'n Sucrose" (Cap'n Crunch), "Fax Mactor" (Max Factor), and "Arper Shimage" (Sharper Image). The Foxes often get their pizza from "Dominics'" (Domino's Pizza) or "Luigi's" (Mario's Pizza). 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) 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), "Gover Cirl" (Cover girl), "Thyme" (Time), "Guy's Life" (Boys' Life), "Chick" (except with a baby bird on the cover), and (at least for a while) "Illustrated Sports" (Sports Illustrated), or, most recently "Vog" ("Vogue").
Games
Many video games in the comic strip are combinations 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), Grand Zombie Auto 3 (Grand Theft Auto and Zombie Rally 3), Iron Mysticus (Iron Helix, Myst, and Lunicus), "Blizzardbund" (Blizzard Entertainment, Broderbund), "World of Warquest" (World of Warcraft and EverQuest), and "Zeldakong" (The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong). 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. (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 featured in the strip, such as the Super Mario Bros. series and Myst. Other examples of real names used in the strip are the Nintendo DS, its game Nintendogs, and Star Wars Battlefront).
Andy has also joined the organization MAGG (Mothers Against Gory Games), not so much out of concern for the level of violence in the games Jason and Peter played but 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").
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. The strip also once mentioned N 'Sync 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. Peter also occasionally listens to Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, and Guns 'n' Roses.
Other subtleties
The first one of these 'subtleties' to appear was a 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.
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).
Characters in FoxTrot
Main characters
Roger
Roger Fox is the father and a corporate worker. 45 years old, he was born in Chicago and attended Willot College as an English major (a parody of Williams College, the rival school of Bill Amend's alma mater, Amherst College).
Roger is usually portrayed as being clueless to what's going on around him, and for the most part is the goofy, slightly slow, but loving father. A fan of sports and obsessed with chess, Roger usually finds himself either breaking bones in his athletic endeavors or losing chess matches when attempting either of them. Earlier strips portrayed him as being very good at chess, but one strip talked about Andy getting good at chess and his play has seemingly gone downhill since then. He also bought a chess-playing machine to practice his skills, but the machine always seems to beat Roger. He also plays chess against the household computer but lost almost every time. Once described as "still trying to catch up with the technology of the 1970s," Roger is extremely inept at operating computers. He indulges in foods of all kinds (despite or possibly due to the dubious cuisine Andy produces); he remains perpetually overweight. Roger does occasionally attempt to barbecue, but he often ends up burning and incinerating the food (and often, himself). Roger also plays a round of golf once in a while but, just like with chess, he's not very good at it. At one point Roger hit the ball with great power and accurracy, only to find out that the hole was the opposite way. He once wrote a novel after a high-school reunion made him disenchanted with what he had done with his life. The result, a spy thriller starring himself as a flawless James Bond figure, was so bad that Andy openly wept when the main character didn't die.
Roger appears to be oblivious to how he truly looks. He fails to notice how the bed sags when he's on it and misses Andy's hints that he should work out. When he used a computer program to make a photo of Andy look more attractive, Andy retailiated by changing a photo of him into Viggo Mortensen but Roger said he didn't see any difference at all. He also overestimates just how high in esteem the children hold him.
One thing about his appearance Roger does seem to notice is his baldness as he's tried wearing ugly looking toupees and even tried giving "pep talks" to his hair to grow. When Peter lost a bet and had to shave his head, Roger exalted that he was no longer the baldest man in the house. His joy was short-lived as Peter grew his hair back far quicker than Roger could imagine.
Roger will often go into various ventures to make more money, such as day-trading, online poker and even trying to make his own wine. His overconfidence in his capabilites in any of these often lead him further into debt (such as stopping poker playing only after maxing out the credit card).
His views on a good family vacation are quite similar to those of Calvin's father from Calvin and Hobbes; he insists on taking the family out on camping trips every couple years to Uncle Ralph's cabin. On all other years they usually go on some other wacky vacation (such as to a desert in August, or to a place called "Skeeter Falls" without packing bug spray.)
Andy
Andrea "Andy" Fox, an English major, is the mother of the Fox family and 42 years old. While earlier strips portrayed her as a freelance writer or columnist for a newspaper, she currently seems to have taken up the mantle of stay-at-home mom, watching over the antics of her mischievous children. She is not particularly pleased that they do not do chores.
A health nut, Andy frequently cooks absurd "health-food" meals for her family, such as lima bean cobbler, tofu curry, or beetloaf, and gives out healthy snacks at Halloween. She appears to be oblivious to (or unconcerned about) the fact that the rest of the family can't stand those foods. At the other end of the food spectrum, she has a monster sweet tooth and has absolutely no problem gobbling up the snacks Roger and the kids try to hold on to.
A miser when it comes to heating, Andy insists on keeping the thermostat extremely low during the winter months, often low enough to freeze soft drinks, milk, hot chocolate, electronic devices, rising steam from a cup of coffee, and oxygen. For the most part, Andy keeps the family grounded (often to the extent of micromanaging their viewing and game-playing habits). She also has a near-obsessive aversion to violence and other "inappropriate content" in video games. Andy is a proud member of M.A.G.G.(Mothers Against Gory Games). Over the last few years this has blossomed to ridiculous proportions: in one recent strip, she questions why Donkey Kong doesn't wear pants.
Despite her many quirks, she acts as a straight man to her family's antics, although she has been known to crack under pressure, usually during the course of visits from her seemingly perfect mother.
Known to obsess over things she likes. Bitty Babies, Titanic, the game Nintendogs, and others have been Andy Fox favorites.
Peter
Peter Fox, the oldest child at 16, is a junior in high school. He usually wears a blue and white baseball cap with the letter A on it (a possible reference to Amend's alma mater, Amherst College, or the baseball team, the Atlanta Braves), a grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans.
Peter loves sports and likes to act as a football/baseball/basketball star, although in truth he is generally relegated to bench-warming, if he makes the team at all. (Although he believes otherwise, he never seems to get that the coach is not joking when he says Peter is bad.) To the dismay of the family, Peter also entertains fantasies of becoming the lead guitarist in a rock band like his idol, Bruce Springsteen. His driving is also another of their collective pet peeves.
A regular procrastinator of schoolwork and chores, Peter often waits until the very last minute to finish his work. In particular, Andy is aghast that he does not take his literary essays seriously.
Like his father, Peter can sometimes seem clueless to events around him. He once played a joke on Paige by making her think she had a secret admirer, even waiting all day in the rain for her non-existent admirer to arrive. Peter seemed to honestly not understand why Paige was so hurt when she found out it was a joke.
Capable of taking in massive amounts of food at one sitting, he is constantly frustrated in his quest to gain weight (with Andy and Roger frustrated that, unlike them, he can burn off pounds with no problem). There is a recurring gag in the series about Peter having a dandruff problem. Peter usually works a summer job at the local movie theater as a janitor and ticket collector but sometimes blows his entire paycheck on food from the snack counter.
Peter met his legally blind girlfriend Denise in the comic's first year and has been dating her ever since. He tried to break up with her once, but soon decided that he wanted to stay with her after all; the story arc was one of the infrequent dramatic, non-humorous weeks of FoxTrot.
Paige
Paige Fox is the lazy 14-year-old, junk-food-craving (very often more and sometimes less than her mother), style-obsessed sister and a freshman in high school. She is always depicted with a ponytail, though 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 is terrified of Jason's pet iguana Quincy (naturally, this encourages Jason all the more to use Quincy to torment her), and spends much of her time at school napping in class (a la Peppermint Patty from Peanuts), trying to get cute boys to notice her, and dodging romantic bids from the class geek, Morton Goldthwait.
Most of her jokes center around the idiosyncrasies of high-school popular culture, as well as Jason's attempts to annoy her. She loves American Idol, fashion magazines, and clothes, but isn't interested in classic literature, as evidenced by her use of a Great Expectations tome instead of a copy of Cosmo Girl to kill a spider. Shakespeare in particular strikes fear into her heart. Her frequent attempts to cook are not much better than her father's in that they usually lead to little more than charcoal and smoke. Paige has also dabbled in acting, and was once cast as Cleopatra in the school's production of Antony and Cleopatra (to her horror, Morton Goldthwait was cast as Antony). She makes frequent pilgrimages to the mall as shopping seems to be the most important thing to her (during a trip to Washington D.C., she sobbed when she realized the National Mall wasn't a shopping center.)
Unlike Peter, Paige does not have a single object of her affections, though her naptime dreams often feature a dashing French hunk named Pierre. Math—especially word problems—is the bane of Paige's existence, and she is frequently depicted in the strip struggling with her geometry homework. Thus, Paige sometimes hires Jason as her "math (or other subject) tutor" before a big test, but unless she agrees to pay him a hefty sum for it, Jason will deliberately give her incorrect or "joke" answers (such as telling her that Shakespeare's first name was "Chet"). Paige also has a problem with procrastination in getting her schoolwork done, but not nearly as severe as Peter's. Once she tried drinking a mixture of coffee and tea in order to pull an "all-nighter" and finish reading a book for English class, which only succeeded in making her so jumpy she couldn't sit still long enough to read. On occasion, Paige will indulge in a video game, though not nearly as often as her brothers.
Jason
Jason Fox is a 10-year old, incredibly brilliant little brother with glasses who makes it his life mission to annoy Paige. With a huge IQ and even larger ego, he is a brilliant geek who has written his own operating system and crashed the entire Internet with the Darth Jason virus. A genius with computers he has also hacked into the highly restricted government files and NASA on several occasions. Jason, as a stereotypical child, also believes that Santa and the X-Files are real, and is frequently seen doing weird things around Christmas time, such as begging for unusual gifts like neutron warheads, as well as changing how the gingerbread men that Andy donates to the church look to make them violent, mutated or wounded. He also claims to like Wikipedia in one strip.
Jason is an A++++ student and worships school, although that does not stop him from getting in trouble there, resulting in his being sentenced to detention or to having to write a sentence over and over. He frequently tutors Paige in math (sometimes demanding money for answers), though he prefers to be referred to as a "math consultant". His favorite activities (besides bothering Paige) include playing video and computer games such as Doomathon and World of Warquest, obsessing over movies such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and tampering with his family's breakfast, which, particularly in the case of his father, he gets a sadistic kick out of.
Jason can also be found entertaining outrageous schemes to either earn or spend huge amounts of money: once attempting to set up a dinosaur-themed hotel in Las Vegas and drawing up plans to build a skyscraper comic book shop - only he had to scrap that plan, but he was glad that it left space for his Star Wars-themed amusement park, which included a life-sized Death Star ride.
Jason has no interest in sports unless they're in video games. He does however enjoys competing with his older brother in unusual challenges, such as TV Channel Russian Roulette, and eating a meal in the fewest bites (which he always wins because he always starts the game on an even number). At some times he is clueless about sports, like when he was watching a NASCAR event and asked his brother how people can get people-shaped billboards to drive car-shaped billboards around the track.
Jason is shown to have almost no understanding of the real world around him outside of computers, games and movies. Despite his brilliance at math and the fact he does the family taxes for Roger occasionally, he seems to be under the impression that his parents are rich; he is constantly coming up with schemes to trick them into giving him thousands of dollars and thinks they can easily buy him expensive computers or video games.
Jason has a intense female dislike and is horrified when he is transformed into a mini-Paige in a ongoing dream sequence. He refuses to admit it, but it is implied that he has a "crush" on Eileen Jacobson [see below].
Quincy
Quincy is Jason's pet iguana, and a specialist in scaring Paige out of her wits, and chewing on something of hers (for example, a Backsync Boys photo).
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. As a rule, Quincy does not think or in any way react in a human fashion to the events around him, making him very unusual among comic strip animals (in short, not anthropomorphic). The one exception is when Quincy tells Jason to listen to his mother when she tells him that cartoons are not real. Quincy is extremely phobic of cats, even if it's a harmless kitten.
Supporting characters
Other recurring characters
Steve Riley is Peter's best friend from high school. He owns several electric guitars and an amp set that Peter sometimes borrows, much to Roger's and Andy's dismay. Steve also has a job at Luigi's, the local pizza parlor.
Denise Russo is 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, 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. 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's blindness has never been exploited in the strip (Peter once punched one of his classmates for making a cruel joke about Denise), but has often been a source of tasteful humor. For example, on her 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."
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.
Pierre is a perfect French lover who only appears in Paige's daydreams. Usually his appearance occurs at the same time Jason does 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. However, Pierre has not made a new appearance since 1998.
Marcus Jones 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). He also enjoys video games, and he plays Dungeons and Dragons (and Houses and Humans) with Jason on occasion. Like Jason, Marcus enjoys school, dislikes being outside and doesn't seem to like girls, but his dislike of girls isn't as strong as Jason's. Marcus is African-American. Jason wants to keep up with the Jones, which is Marcus' last name. 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 is Jason's sometimes nemesis, sometimes semi-friend, whom he doesn't want to admit he secretly likes. A Harry Potter fan (a character Jason doesn't want 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). 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.
Morton Goldthwait is the "biggest geek in school", according to Paige. Apparently, the entire science department calls him "Sir". 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. 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). 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.
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. 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).
Katherine "Katie" O'Dell: Katie is the toddler daughter of the eccentric Mrs. O'Dell, for whom Paige often babysits. She is portrayed as being a typical hyperactive toddler who makes a fuss and spits her food out (all over Paige's face) when she's fed and is obsessed with "Blue's Clues." The little girl has often turned out to be too much for Paige to handle on many occasions. Once, Katie overheard an expletive uttered on the "Jerzy Spaniel" (a takeoff on "Jerry Springer") talk show while Paige was watching, and proceeded to say the offending word over and over, causing Paige to swear in front of Katie. Katie begins to repeat both words and Paige manages to get into major trouble with Mrs. O'Dell (she was only paid a penny for that babysitting session). On another occasion, Katie chopped up her pretty new dress with a pair of scissors while Paige was napping, and Paige ended up having to buy Katie a new dress with her own babysitting pay. She is one of the characters that has actually aged in the strip.
J. P. Pembrook is the CEO of Roger's company. – He relies on Roger to do his million-dollar deals because of his past successes. Unbeknownst to him – they are done by a ten-year-old (Jason). We never see his face, only his hands; given his ruthless personality, that may be a good thing. He has won the Iron Fist Award and the Golden Gallows Award, according to trophies seldom seen on his desk. His first two initials seem to be a nod towards financier J. P. Morgan. He has a son, J.P. Junior, whom Roger once entertained by dressing up as a clown.
Fred is a coworker of Roger's. Fred often plays golf with him (and always wins), and Roger apparently considers Fred to be well informed about all things popular.
Other infrequent recurring characters
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, and their feud has been going on since Andy was in seventh grade (when Andy would be scolded by her mother in front of her friends, and her friends took her mother's side). 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.
Phoebe Wu: A friend of Eileen. They met at Camp Bohrmore in 1997. She kept a journal for her time at camp, even saving samples of the food there. Although initially bitter rivals with Jason and Marcus, the four eventually formed an "Ultra-Secret Friendship Club" while at camp, something the two boys have had varying cause to regret since then.
Eugene Wu: Phoebe's arrogant and egotistical brother. His friends call him The Brain - or at least, they would, if he had any friends. He once arrived in Jason and Marcus's neighborhood along with his sister Phoebe and succeeded in breaking Jason, Marcus, Eileen, and Phoebe's friendship club by stealing Phoebe's camp journal and planting clues incriminating various members of the club. It is implied that an IQ test showed that Phoebe is technically smarter than Eugene, and as a result Eugene struggles to prove that he is not inferior to his sister (according to him, this is because of the margin of error on the test).
Miss Rockbottom: Paige's gym teacher. Paige once called her a "power-hungry neo-Nazi fascist tub of lard," but believes she took it as a compliment.
Dr. Ting: Paige's biology teacher, who has come to rely on her lab reports as a source of weekend entertainment. It was suggested that he and the other teachers make less than minimum wage.
Hawkins: A camper at Camp Bohrmore when Jason attended one summer. He is apparently a genius hacker and has a 50-digit-long encryption code. Jason once got one of his (apparently wide-spread) viruses.
Mr. Martini/Mr. Rawthroat: The principal of Jason and Marcus' school. He is seen very infrequently, typically when Jason is in trouble. Jason did see Mr. Martini voluntarily one time to ask what happened to his comic strip that was going to appear in the school newspaper.
Fauntleroy: A bull terrier Peter had to baby sit a few occasions. Although Fauntleroy is tiny, Peter always gets numerous bites & scratches. Peter always refers to the dog as a 'canine piranha'. However, Peter never figured that the dog was merely reacting to the smell of soap he had been using earlier (all-natural beef tallow) and therefore continued to think Fauntleroy only thought of him as a human pin cushion.
Slug Man and Leech Boy are comic book characters created by Jason in a Batman parody. Slug Man and Leech Boy are almost always fighting their arch-enemy, Paige-O-Tron, the most evil robot in the universe (although they once were said to have had an "epic battle with Gargantutron [a monstrous cookie] last summer"). Jason has tried to sell Slug Man and Leech Boy merchandise several times. He has also made Slug Man wall calendars and once wallpapered his room with Slug Man comics. There is an entire Slug Man comic (The Adventures of Slug Man: "The Final Confrontation III") at the end of the FoxTrot en masse anthology, which also features a fake advertisement for Slug Man products, all made by Jason. Bill Amend has a Slug Man computer game, based on Joust, available on his Web site (see External Links, below).
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.
The Geometry Demon: A small winged demon who once showed up to torment Paige during her geometry homework. Paige quickly took care of him by smashing him between the pages of her book.
Miss Grinchley: Jason and Marcus' teacher before Miss O'Malley. Despite her name, she does not seem reminiscent of the Grinch. It is implied that she used to "go bonkers" in response to Jason's antics in class (which, of course, encouraged Jason to misbehave even more). Miss O'Malley replaced Miss Grinchley after she retired in 1991.
Chris Morrissey: A senior student who took Paige to the prom in 1989, despite Peter's objections. Chris is a male chavunist, as shown by his sexual harassment towards Paige at the dance and when he's driving her home.
Mitch Kellog: A partying senior. Mitch had a party at his house in 1989 that Paige and Nicole attended. He tried to get Paige to get stoned, do lines, and go to bed with him, but Paige turned him down until she had to punch him in the nose.
Larry: The janitor at Jason's school. He had to help Jason clean up his desk after drawing a Slug-Man cartoon on it, but before they cleaned it, Jason had Larry help him photocopy the cartoon.
Skip Riley: Roger's summer intern in 1990, the ultimate sycophant, who even called Roger his "light and inspiration", before jumping ship to become an intern for Charles Diggs, the head of Roger's department. The amount of time Roger and Skip spent together made Peter intensely jealous, but Roger didn't realize until after Skip had left him how much he'd hurt Peter's feelings.
Mr. Kimpshaw: The vice principal of the high school that Peter and Paige attends. He showed up one time when Peter punched Mike Barnes' nose to bleeding (in response to Mike teasing Peter about Denise's blindness). He scared the heck out of Peter when he included that he would be calling Peter's parents in the list of punishments landed on Peter for his violent action.
Squishy and Squashy, the Talking Roadkill Brothers: The titular characters of a comic strip that Jason did for his school newspaper in 1992, with the intent of making merchandising profit off of it. They were never actually seen, but Jason has revealed that they were secretly vampires. Unfortunately for Jason, censorship prevented the strip from running.
Mrs. DeFalco: Mrs. DeFalco only appears in one 1999 strip where Jason and Marcus are looking at the candy that everybody is buying for halloween so they know where to trick or treat. Jason says to Marcus, "Looks like Mrs. DeFalco is loading up on mini snickers and smarties."
The Tamagrouchy: Paige received a Tamagrouchy from her father in August 1997. It is similar to a Tamagotchi which requires feeding and care, except that it is has a grouchy personality. It frequently insults Paige and actually has conversations with people, which is much more advanced than a normal Tamagotchi. It has extremely complicated instructions (to give it a glass of water, you must press buttons A and C together, then hold button B for three seconds, then tap button C twice, then press button A, then button C, then press button B, then do the whole process backward). When Paige threatened to neglect it and let it die, it claimed that unlike Tamagotchis, Tamagrouchys become immortal if neglected. Paige eventually was so annoyed by the toy that she gave the Tamagrouchy to Jason to reprogram, with somewhat disastrous results for Paige.
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. 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. 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 (The Writer of FoxTrot) 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."
Uncle Ralph's Cabin is a typical camping spot for the Fox family. 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. It almost seems to be a parody of Disneyland (obviously, "mountain" is to "universe" as "land" is to "world", so this is probably a parody of the smaller of the two American Disney resorts, and Fun Fun Universe is of the bigger). 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.
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 Fox's 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 are 400,000 acres (1600 km²) large. The falls gets 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. 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.
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, and the steel drum music at the beach consists of a staff person playing the synthesizer.
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 convinced him to accept an 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-ROM burners. The iFruit has also been upgraded and taken apart by Jason many times. 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."
FoxTrot books
 | It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled List of FoxTrot books. (Discuss) |
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 (and less expensive) to give a larger gap between anthologies (see below). They (as well as the anthologies) are published by Andrews McMeel Publishing.
| Title | Cover | Publication Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| FoxTrot | "FoxTrot." | January 1, 1989 | ISBN 0836218566 |
| Pass the Loot | "Pass the Loot." | January 1, 1990 | ISBN 0836218159 |
| Black Bart Says Draw | "Black Bart Says Draw." | January 1, 1991 | ISBN 0836218698 |
| Eight Yards Down and Out | "Eight Yards Down and Out." | January 1, 1992 | ISBN 0836218841 |
| Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain | "Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain." | March 1, 1993 | ISBN 0836217063 |
| Say Hello to Cactus Flats | "Say Hello to Cactus Flats." | August 1, 1993 | ISBN 0836217209 |
| May The Force Be With Us, Please | "May The Force Be With Us, Please." | March 1, 1994 | ISBN 0836217411 |
| Take Us To Your Mall | "Take Us To Your Mall." | March 1, 1995 | ISBN 0836217802 |
| The Return of the Lone Iguana | "The Return of the Lone Iguana." | April 1, 1996 | ISBN 0836210271 |
| At Least This Place Sells T-Shirts | "At Least This Place Sells T-Shirts." | September 1, 1996 | ISBN 0836221206 |
| Come Closer, Roger, There's a Mosquito on Your Nose | "Come Closer, Roger, There's a Mosquito on Your Nose." | August 1, 1997 | ISBN 0836236564 |
| Welcome to Jasorassic Park | "Welcome to Jasorassic Park." | April 1, 1998 | ISBN 0836251830 |
| I'm Flying, Jack ...I Mean, Roger | "I'm Flying, Jack ...I Mean, Roger." | September 1, 1999 | ISBN 0740700049 |
| Think iFruity | "Think iFruity." | February 1, 2000 | ISBN 0740704540 |
| Death By Field Trip | "Death By Field Trip ." | April 13, 2001 | ISBN 0740713914 |
| Encyclopedias Brown and White | "Encyclopedias Brown and White." | September 6, 2001 | ISBN 0740718509 |
| His Code Name Was The Fox | "His Code Name Was The Fox." | April 1, 2002 | ISBN 0740721917 |
| Your Momma Thinks Square Roots are Vegetables | "Your Momma Thinks Square Roots are Vegetables." | April 11, 2003 | ISBN 0740732994 |
| Who's Up for Some Bonding? | "Who's Up for Some Bonding?" | August 1, 2003 | ISBN 0740738062 |
| Am I a Mutant, or What! | "Am I a Mutant, or What!" | April 1, 2004 | ISBN 0740741322 |
| Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything | "Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything." | March 31, 2005 | ISBN 0740749994 |
| My Hot Dog Went Out, Can I Have Another? | "My Hot Dog Went Out, Can I Have Another?" | August 1, 2005 | ISBN 0740754416 |
| How Come I'm Always Luigi? | "How Come I'm Always Luigi?" | April 1, 2006 | ISBN 0740756834 |
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.
| Title | Cover | Date | ISBN | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FoxTrot: The Works | "FoxTrot: The Works." | January 1, 1990 | ISBN 0836218485 | Includes comics from FoxTrot and Pass the Loot. |
| FoxTrot en masse | "FoxTrot en masse." | June 1, 1992 | ISBN 0836218973 | Includes comics from Black Bart Says Draw and Eight Yards Down and Out. |
| Enormously FoxTrot | "Enormously FoxTrot." | September 1, 1994 | ISBN 0836217594 | Includes comics from Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain and Say Hello to Cactus Flats. |
| Wildly FoxTrot | "Wildly FoxTrot." | September 1, 1995 | ISBN 0836204166 | Includes comics from May The Force Be With Us, Please and Take Us To Your Mall. |
| FoxTrot Beyond a Doubt | "FoxTrot Beyond a Doubt." | March 1, 1997 | ISBN 0836226941 | Includes comics from The Return of the Lone Iguana and At Least This Place Sells T-Shirts. |
| Camp FoxTrot | "Camp FoxTrot." | September 1, 1998 | ISBN 0836267478 | Includes comics from Come Closer, Roger, There's a Mosquito on Your Nose and Welcome to Jasorassic Park. |
| Assorted FoxTrot | "Assorted FoxTrot." | November 1, 2000 | ISBN 0740705326 | Includes comics from I'm Flying, Jack... I Mean, Roger and Think iFruity. |
| FoxTrot: Assembled with Care | "FoxTrot: Assembled with Care." | November 2, 2002 | ISBN 0740726641 | Includes comics from Death By Field Trip, Encyclopedias Brown and White, and His Code Name Was The Fox. |
| Foxtrotius Maximus | "Foxtrotius Maximus." | September 1, 2004 | ISBN 0740726641 | Includes comics from Your Momma Thinks Square Roots are Vegetables, Who's Up for Some Bonding?, and Am I a Mutant, or What!. |
Other languages
FoxTrot is translated into many other languages, including Spanish [1], Portuguese and Swedish.
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.
External links
Links last verified on January 24, 2006
