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FoxTrot

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FoxTrot
Author(s)Bill Amend
WebsiteFoxTrot.com
Current status/scheduleSundays-only; daily until December 30, 2006
Launch dateApril 10, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-04-10)
Syndicate(s)Universal Press Syndicate
Publisher(s)Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)Humor, Family, Satire

FoxTrot is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Amend. As of December 2006, FoxTrot was carried by more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide.[1] The strip launched on April 10, 1988.

In 2006, Amend announced that he would cease drawing FoxTrot seven days a week and the final daily strip ran on December 30 of that year. Beginning the next day, and every week since then, FoxTrot has strictly appeared on Sundays.[1]

The strip revolves around the daily lives of the Fox family, composed of parents Andrea (Andy, 42) and Roger (45), and their children, Peter (16), Paige (14), and Jason (10). It covers a wide range of subject matter, including spoofs of pop culture fads, nerd culture, and popular consumer products.

History

Amend states that after he submitted strips for three years, in 1987 Universal Press Syndicate offered him a contract.[2] FoxTrot was first published on April 10, 1988, under the syndication of Universal Press Syndicate.[3][4]

On December 5, 2006, Universal Press Syndicate issued a press release stating that Amend's strip, FoxTrot, would turn into a Sunday-only strip. Amend stated that he wants to continue doing the strip, but at a less hurried pace.[5] This news was followed by a week-long arc of the characters discussing a "cartoonist" semi-retiring to Sundays only, and what methods he would use to phase out the daily strips. The last daily strip was printed on December 30, 2006.[6]

Characters

Main article: List of FoxTrot characters

FoxTrot centers on the daily lives of the Fox family, composed of father Roger, wife Andy, and their children: Peter, Paige, and Jason, who live together in the same house.[7] Additional characters include Jason's pet iguana Quincy; Jason's friend Marcus and his classmate Eileen Jacobson; Paige's friend Nicole and her classmate Morton Goldthwait; Peter's girlfriend Denise and his friend Steve; and other friends and classmates of the children and Roger's co-workers. Like many comic strips, FoxTrot employs a floating timeline, where time passes but the characters themselves never age.

Settings

The Fox family lives in a suburban setting. Several storylines in the strip have focused on summer vacation trips to various places. Early on, the Fox family spent summer vacation at "Uncle Ralph's Cabin".[8] Later vacations by the Fox family have included trips to Hawaii, Washington D.C., the desert, various amusement parks (see Bury My Heart at Fun-Fun Mountain for an example), and campgrounds. In a series of strips though, references are made implying that they live in or near Chicago. However, Amend has denied this and claims that he has never given a particular location or name for where they live.

Early in the strip's run, FoxTrot often dealt with societal issues such as drug abuse.[9]

In addition to family humor, the strip has many stories built around fandom and popular culture. In one example, Jason was playing chess with his friend Marcus, but the game was tweaked into being a modified Dungeons and Dragons.[10]

On occasion, there have been a few celebrity guest appearances in the strip, such as The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Amend majored in physics at Amherst College,[11] and his knowledge of physics is sometimes reflected in FoxTrot's frequent inclusion of complex mathematical or physics formulae, usually written by Jason. Jason is also used to express Amend's knowledge of computer languages.[12]

Books

Main article: List of FoxTrot books

The strips have been printed forty-one different books, all by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Of the 41 books, 27 are collections and 14 are anthologies. The anthologies are composed of the two or three previous collections, and include Sunday strips in color.

Merchandising

During the late 1990s, the character of Jason Fox was licensed to Wolfram Research as a product spokesman for its Mathematica software package.[13]

Animated Series

Bill Amend said in past interviews that FoxTrot was almost made into a TV animated series in the 90s. He said he flew to Hollywood a few times to meet with different studios to talk about concepts, but nothing ever got off the ground.

Critical reception

In a 1990 article which reviewed various then-current comic strips, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave FoxTrot a "B" rating, calling it "the most idiosyncratic comic strip to debut since Calvin and Hobbes" and describing the Fox family as "believable."[14]

References

  1. ^ a b "FoxTrot to Cease Dailies" (Press release). Universal Press Syndicate. December 5, 2006. Retrieved December 5, 2006.
  2. ^ Amend, Bill. "About The Strip – About Me". foxtrot.com. Bill Amend. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  3. ^ Arvae, Lynn (April 11, 1988). "'FoxTrot' comic strip premieres today". Deseret News. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
  4. ^ "Hunting fox in suburbia: New comic strip premieres". The Miami Herald. April 10, 1988. pp. 1G. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
  5. ^ "FoxTrot to Cease Dailies". amuniversal.com (Press release). Universal Press Syndicate.
  6. ^ "Universal Uclick". amuniversal.com. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  7. ^ Amend, Bill. "About FoxTrot". Original Comic Website. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  8. ^ Amend, Bill (1990). FoxTrot: The Works (pp. 60–1). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-8362-1848-5.
  9. ^ "'FoxTrot' tackles drug abuse". Deseret News. March 6, 1989. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
  10. ^ Andersen, Espen (December 12, 2007). "Applied Abstractions: Wikipedia As Seen By FoxTrot". espen.com. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
  11. ^ "Bill Amend – Creator Bio". amuniversal.com. Universal Press Syndicate. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010.
  12. ^ Amend, Bill (2001). Death By Field Trip (p. 87). Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-1391-4. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  13. ^ "'FoxTrot' Character Jason Fox to Promote Innovative Educational Calculus Software" (Press release). Wolfram Research. June 8, 1998. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  14. ^ Tucker, Ken (October 15, 1990). "Black & White and Read All Over". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
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