FoxTrot is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Amend. An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Bill Amend ˈbɪl ˈeɪmənd (born September 20, 1962 in Northampton, Massachusetts) is an American Cartoonist, best known A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Events 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1407 - the lama Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Events 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield. 1816 - The Treaty of St Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Print syndication is a form of syndication in which News articles columns, or Comic strips are made available to Newspapers, Magazines Universal Press Syndicate, an Andrews McMeel Universal company is the world's largest independent syndicate and provides syndication for a number of lifestyle and The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist Bill Amend ˈbɪl ˈeɪmənd (born September 20, 1962 in Northampton, Massachusetts) is an American Cartoonist, best known As of December 2006, FoxTrot is carried by over 1,000 newspapers worldwide. ^[1] It was published on a daily schedule from its inception in 1988 until December 31, 2006, when Amend switched it to a Sunday-only format. Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ^[1]

The strip centers around the daily lives of the Fox family, an American family composed of two parents and three children: the parents Roger (father) and Andy (mother), and children Peter, Paige and Jason, who are 16, 14, and 10 years of age, respectively. The strip covers a wide range of subject matter, including spoofs of pop culture fads and popular consumer products.

Characters

Main article: List of FoxTrot family members

The Foxtrot comic is centered around the daily lives of the Fox family, consisting of parents Roger and Andy, and their three children: Peter, Paige, and Jason. This page contains information on the fictional Fox family the central characters in the American Comic strip FoxTrot, created by Bill Amend. Additional minor characters include Jason's pet iguana Quincy, Jason's best friend Marcus and love-hate classmate Eileen Jacobson, Paige's best friend Nicole and her admirer Morton, Peter's best friend Steve, his blind girlfriend Denise, and other friends and classmates of the children. Iguana is a Genus of Lizard native to tropical areas of Central and South America and the Caribbean first described by Austrian

Settings

The Fox family lives in a two-story house in a suburban setting; their address was identified in the first strip as 1254 North Elm Street, but the city and state have never been specified. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California.

Several storylines in the strip have focused on summer vacation trips to various places. Early on, the Fox family spent summer vacation at "Uncle Ralph's Cabin" . ^[2] Later vacations by the Fox family have included trips to Hawaii, Washington D.C., the desert, various amusement parks (usually in a fictional "Fun-Fun" chain of theme parks), and campgrounds. The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D A desert is a Landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. Theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other Entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large group Description The term "camp" comes from the Latin word campus, meaning field

Popular culture

A typical example of the strip referencing popular culture; in this case the cancellation of the cult science fiction television series Farscape by the Sci-Fi Channel and its ensuing controversy. Farscape is an American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced for the Sci-Fi Channel.

Another strip about popular culture, this time, a criticism of Wikipedia. ***************************************************************************************** * *

In addition to family humor, the strip has many stories built around fandom and popular culture. Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc The characters - primarily Jason, Peter, and Paige — frequently have new obsessions or interests which reflect the time period at which the strip was published. At least two FoxTrot strips have directly mentioned Wikipedia.

Jason is often portrayed as having a fascination in various science fiction and fantasy titles, including Star Wars, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting Star Wars is an epic Space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas during the 1970s and significantly expanded The Lord of the Rings is an epic He also plays the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by In addition, both he and Peter are frequently seen playing video games on the computer and on gaming consoles. A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. On some occasions, the games are referred to by their actual names, while others are identified by fictional names. The later usually reference real-life titles, such as "Riviablo", a combination of Riven and Diablo. Riven is the Sequel to the highly successful computer game Myst. Diablo is a Dark fantasy -themed Action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment

Scientific references

Amend majored in physics at Amherst College,^[3] and his knowledge of physics is sometimes reflected in FoxTrot's frequent inclusion of complex mathematical or physics formulae, usually written by Jason. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Amherst College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Jason is also used to express Amend's knowledge of computer languages. ^[4]

Style

Passage of time

FoxTrot is similar to other comic strips in that the characters do not age (although Roger's forty-fifth birthday was celebrated in the strip's first year). There was an in-joke on the lack of aging in a strip in which Andy told Jason that Roger had donated blood even though he was scared of needles because "We all have to grow up, kiddo. " Jason replied, "Whoa, did I stumble into For Better or For Worse?", referring to a comic in which the characters age. This article is about the comic strip For other uses see For better or worse.

Although the characters do not age, past events are occasionally referenced in the strip—most notably, Jason's summer at Camp Bohrmore, a science-based summer camp, in a 1997 storyline. Summer camp is a supervised Program for Children and/or Teenagers conducted (usually during the Summer Months in some countries Other past events in the strip may be referred to as happening "last year" even if the referenced storyline was printed more than a year ago.

Parodies and subtleties

The characters appear to be aware that they are living a comic strip, with references to such events as ink shortages and "whitening" toothpaste that erased the lines between Roger's teeth. In scenes where a character is reading a newspaper, Amend will often add a joke headline to the paper (such as "Cartoonist to join NASCAR Circuit"), usually accompanied by a caricature of himself. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing ( NASCAR) is the largest sanctioning body of Stock cars in the United States. Other comic strips are sometimes referenced as well, and characters from other strips are sometimes drawn in the background. Sometimes, details in the background will change subtly from panel to panel, such as the text on a poster, magazine or coffee mug.

Often, when a band, video game, or brand name is referenced, the name in question is a combination of two or more other names (such as "World of Warquest", frequently played by Jason; the name is a portmanteau of World of Warcraft and Everquest, two popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games). World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG EverQuest, often called EQ, is a 3D fantasy -themed Massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) that was released A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with

Computers

Several FoxTrot gags revolve around the use of a computer. The first of these to appear in the strip was an Apple II; in 1991, Andy had purchased an unidentified style of Compact Macintosh. " Compact Macintosh " or " Classic Macintosh " are informal terms that refer to the direct descendants of the original Macintosh personal computer Later on, this was replaced with an unidentified Macintosh desktop computer, similar in design to a Macintosh LC or Power Macintosh. The Macintosh LC (meaning low-cost color) was Apple Computer 's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh Personal computers in the early 1990s Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a line of Apple Macintosh Workstation -class Personal computers based on various models of PowerPC This computer, in turn, was sold in a 1999 story after Roger's unsuccessful attempts at online stock trading; shortly afterward, the family purchased an "iFruit", a parody of the original model of the iMac. The iMac is a desktop Macintosh computer designed and built by Apple Inc Starting in 2007, a newer computer resembling the most recent model of iMac has been shown.

Books

Main article: List of FoxTrot books

There have been 35 FoxTrot books published so far, all by Andrews McMeel Publishing. There have been 35 FoxTrot books published so far all by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Andrews McMeel Publishing LLC (formerly Andrews McMeel and Parker (1975-1986 and Andrews and McMeel (1986-1997 is a company which publishes books calendars Of the 35 books, 25 are collections and 10 are anthologies. The anthologies are composed of the two or three previous collections, and include Sunday strips in color.

Merchandising

During the late 1990s, the character of Jason Fox was licensed to Wolfram Research as a product spokesman for its Mathematica software package. Mathematica is a computer program used widely in scientific engineering and mathematical fields ^[5] In fact, Mathematica was referenced at least once in the strip (though several years before Jason was licensed).

References

External links

• FoxTrot.com
• Universal Press Syndicate FoxTrot Page
• Bill Amend's Homepages
• FoxTrot comics and FoxTrot classics at GoComics
• Biographies of Bill Amend
• Bill Amend's press release about FoxTrot Ceasing Dailies