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FoxTrot Anthologies
FoxTrot: The Works
"In far too many comic strips, trendy stereotypes pass for humor, cliches pass for insight, mechanical repetition passes for story, and cut animals designed for merchandising pass for heart and warmth. FoxTrot offers welcome relief from all of this, and not a moment too soon." --Bill Watterson
This treasury edition, The Works , combines two FoxTrot collections, FoxTrot and Pass the Loot . All the daily strips and color Sundays are collected in one large volume for FoxTrot fans everywhere.
This treasury edition, The Works , combines two FoxTrot collections, FoxTrot and Pass the Loot . All the daily strips and color Sundays are collected in one large volume for FoxTrot fans everywhere.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
6 people are currently reading
1391 people want to read
About the author
Bill Amend
63 books302 followersBill Amend is an American cartoonist, best known for his comic strip FoxTrot.
Born as William J. C. Amend III, Amend attended high school in Burlingame, California where he was a cartoonist on his school newspaper. Amend is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He attended Amherst College, where he drew comics for the college paper. He majored in physics and graduated in 1984.
After a short time in the animation business, Amend decided to pursue a cartooning career and signed on with Universal Press Syndicate. FoxTrot first appeared on April 10, 1988.
Amend currently lives in the midwestern United States with his wife and two children, a boy and girl.
Born as William J. C. Amend III, Amend attended high school in Burlingame, California where he was a cartoonist on his school newspaper. Amend is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He attended Amherst College, where he drew comics for the college paper. He majored in physics and graduated in 1984.
After a short time in the animation business, Amend decided to pursue a cartooning career and signed on with Universal Press Syndicate. FoxTrot first appeared on April 10, 1988.
Amend currently lives in the midwestern United States with his wife and two children, a boy and girl.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
September 12, 2016
FoxTrot was never in my local paper until, it seems, Bill Amend retired from daily strips. That about sums up everything that's been wrong with the comics page the past twenty years or so. Everyone knows what Bill Watterson thought about it. Amend was kind of the Watterson of family strip creators, and that's evident right from the start.
Where Calvin & Hobbes centered almost exclusively on a boy and his best friend, FoxTrot focused on the everyday absurdities of a whole family, in a lot of ways laying the groundwork for the culture we exist in today. When Jason Fox obsesses over something (dinosaurs, 1989's Batman), you can bet it was significant at the time, and can still be remembered today. While some of the family dynamics might seem obvious (the other half of what happened to comic strips is that they are still kind of stuck in stereotypes that don't exist like they used to, and we tend to resent any reminders about them today), the characters are so well-defined, and can be recognized by anyone who grew up with a gaggle of siblings, you can't help but occasionally bust out in well-deserved laughter. Today we assume that if something's meant to be funny, it's got to be mean about it. Well, family is funny and mean all the time, but Amend always keeps it cute.
What FoxTrot nailed, right from the start, is the cyclical nature of life, not just in the routines of school or vacation (though you'll find those, too), but in the everyday challenges, like Roger Fox trying to get his wife Andy to play chess with him (this dad's far more harried and childish than Homer Simpson could ever dream). Amend makes plenty of in-jokes, including the stresses of cartoonists making deadlines, but you never see the strain on the page. Again, you don't read the funnies to laugh out loud every time. They exist because they become part of the family.
When done well, that's exactly what a comic strip makes its reader. That's what FoxTrot does. Everyone's besieged in this family. Prepare to surrender your funny bone.
Where Calvin & Hobbes centered almost exclusively on a boy and his best friend, FoxTrot focused on the everyday absurdities of a whole family, in a lot of ways laying the groundwork for the culture we exist in today. When Jason Fox obsesses over something (dinosaurs, 1989's Batman), you can bet it was significant at the time, and can still be remembered today. While some of the family dynamics might seem obvious (the other half of what happened to comic strips is that they are still kind of stuck in stereotypes that don't exist like they used to, and we tend to resent any reminders about them today), the characters are so well-defined, and can be recognized by anyone who grew up with a gaggle of siblings, you can't help but occasionally bust out in well-deserved laughter. Today we assume that if something's meant to be funny, it's got to be mean about it. Well, family is funny and mean all the time, but Amend always keeps it cute.
What FoxTrot nailed, right from the start, is the cyclical nature of life, not just in the routines of school or vacation (though you'll find those, too), but in the everyday challenges, like Roger Fox trying to get his wife Andy to play chess with him (this dad's far more harried and childish than Homer Simpson could ever dream). Amend makes plenty of in-jokes, including the stresses of cartoonists making deadlines, but you never see the strain on the page. Again, you don't read the funnies to laugh out loud every time. They exist because they become part of the family.
When done well, that's exactly what a comic strip makes its reader. That's what FoxTrot does. Everyone's besieged in this family. Prepare to surrender your funny bone.
January 4, 2025
My 8-year-old is way into this comic, so I'm revisiting it after loving it when I wasn't too much older than he is now. Despite some dated pop culture references, it holds up surprisingly well—definitely one of the best mainstream strips of the '80s/'90s, and I'm looking forward to the later anthologies, which collect strips I've never read.
I'm taking away one star because Quincy is cuter than any real iguana and that always made me sad
I'm taking away one star because Quincy is cuter than any real iguana and that always made me sad
February 19, 2009
Amend is one of the funniest comic artists around. His jokes are funny and hit family relationships squarely on the head. He is a very talented artist, and very imaginative. I love to look for his "Easter eggs" in the form of newspaper articles with comic writer jokes and how from frame to frame the Fox's household picture and magazines will "move". Overall anyone who loves to laugh aloud will enjoy this.
August 11, 2022
Pretty good. I was surprised when I read this in tenth grade to find a character using marijuana and cocaine. And I was a little displeased that it spoiled The Scarlet Letter for me.
July 28, 2021
Fox Trot has been a favorite of mine for years. I’ve read these comics countless times and they still always make me laugh.
September 8, 2017
I had decided to dig through my old comic books to re-read them for my surgery recovery. The one comic book series I have a lot of is FoxTrot. It strikes me now that im older that Jason is a lot like Sheldon from Big bang theory. It's like Sheldon the early years if Missy was older and easier to prank. I will say that for a comic that is 27 years old it has aged well. The humor is still relevant even now. Nowadays you wouldn't have Bruce Springsteen or Cindy Crawford; but insert modern band and model, and it would feel.completely modern. I am only giving it three stars thought. I didn't laugh once, but still enjoyed it.
September 24, 2017
An incredibly charming, well-written (sharp without being unrealistic, captures the family dynamic very well without falling into inaccurate cliches) newspaper comic strip. It makes sense that Bill Watterson would be one of Amend's fans, they both share that wonderful humanistic view of the world and a keen eye for interpersonal satire.
November 15, 2020
This book was a nostalgia trip. Many of the comics reference pop culture from the late 80s and early 90s. It also took me back to a time when I read comics in the newspaper. Fox Trot along with other strips were much more important to me growing up than super hero comics. This was a nice trip down memory lane.
August 17, 2017
A little bit cliche but yet, makes me smile
November 15, 2019
HUMOUR!!!!!*1000
November 23, 2019
One of the best and consistently funny comic strips. There is truly a laugh on every page.
February 28, 2020
Funny stuff. Also a bit of 90's nostalgia for me.
June 9, 2022
It was cool to see Amend's development as a writer and artist in these early strips. A solid collection.
March 8, 2025
My first introduction to FoxTrot.
November 30, 2025
The imagination and the laughs all bundled up quite nicely here
August 10, 2025
The first collection; most comics take time to get going but this one seems fully formed from the first.
April 17, 2023
The year 1988 was an interesting time in the world of newspaper comic publishing. Newspaper comics were a vibrant medium, with the surprise hit Calvin and Hobbes pushing the boundaries of the medium. Far Side, a slightly earlier comic, had explored more irreverent humor. In contrast, Doonesbury and the later Bloom County continued in the long history of political cartoons but incorporated commentary on pop culture in a way that others had not before.
Enter Foxtrot, in some ways, a comic in the mold of earlier strips like Blondie and Marmaduke, which focused on family life, or Peanuts, which focused on school and childhood experiences. But Foxtrot was a strip for a new generation. In this strip, far more than others, technology and geek culture played a more prominent role.
Amend tapped into the energy of the "MTV generation," proceeding the Simpsons by a year but likely finding a similar audience. No doubt publishers were searching for another Calvin and Hobbes when they greenlit Amend's comic. Paper readership (and thus advertising dollars) were beginning to decline as more people tuned into television for news and entertainment.
Cartooning itself was about to change significantly with the introduction of personal computers and digital tools. Licensing and merchandising would explode in the coming decade proving lucrative for business-minded creators while audiences would become more sophisticated as options; notably, the rise of graphic novels elevated the art form and helped to legitimize comics as a medium for storytelling.
In this context, you need to read FoxTrot: The Works. It's both a product of its time and something more: an undeniably interesting creation. A decade later, it may have been an early webcomic, forgoing the medium of newspapers entirely. It would likely have never been accepted a decade before without significant revision.
The strips are still funny, but it's clear that Amend hasn't come fully into his form, and for someone unfamiliar with the context of their creation, the choices may seem odd or the stories lacking.
This is a great book for the right reader but later anthologies will serve better to the causal reader.
Enter Foxtrot, in some ways, a comic in the mold of earlier strips like Blondie and Marmaduke, which focused on family life, or Peanuts, which focused on school and childhood experiences. But Foxtrot was a strip for a new generation. In this strip, far more than others, technology and geek culture played a more prominent role.
Amend tapped into the energy of the "MTV generation," proceeding the Simpsons by a year but likely finding a similar audience. No doubt publishers were searching for another Calvin and Hobbes when they greenlit Amend's comic. Paper readership (and thus advertising dollars) were beginning to decline as more people tuned into television for news and entertainment.
Cartooning itself was about to change significantly with the introduction of personal computers and digital tools. Licensing and merchandising would explode in the coming decade proving lucrative for business-minded creators while audiences would become more sophisticated as options; notably, the rise of graphic novels elevated the art form and helped to legitimize comics as a medium for storytelling.
In this context, you need to read FoxTrot: The Works. It's both a product of its time and something more: an undeniably interesting creation. A decade later, it may have been an early webcomic, forgoing the medium of newspapers entirely. It would likely have never been accepted a decade before without significant revision.
The strips are still funny, but it's clear that Amend hasn't come fully into his form, and for someone unfamiliar with the context of their creation, the choices may seem odd or the stories lacking.
This is a great book for the right reader but later anthologies will serve better to the causal reader.
July 11, 2017
Continuing our recent fascination with all things Foxtrot, we all zipped through this early anthology of the popular comic strip by Bill Amend.
I really enjoy this comic strip, but after reading several different anthologies, the jokes are starting to feel a bit worn out. It's quite repetitive, but still funny.
Since the book features strips from about more than two decades ago, quite a bit of the technology and pop culture references are very dated, and our girls didn't get all of them.
On the whole, it's an entertaining book with many witty observations about family life in America. We all enjoyed reading it.
I really enjoy this comic strip, but after reading several different anthologies, the jokes are starting to feel a bit worn out. It's quite repetitive, but still funny.
Since the book features strips from about more than two decades ago, quite a bit of the technology and pop culture references are very dated, and our girls didn't get all of them.
On the whole, it's an entertaining book with many witty observations about family life in America. We all enjoyed reading it.
March 6, 2021
Was discussing how a comic didn’t really need a particular gimmick or unusual setting to be hilarious. Foxtrot immediately came to mind. Just a regular American middle class family with sibling rivalry issues at the turn of the ‘90’s. It was one of the select strips I read in the paper back in the day and I got this early book of the strip to read up on it. Reading it again nearly thirty years later it remains just as funny to me today. I can’t say that of every strip I liked. The humor of many faded on me over time but Foxtrot remained sharp, clever, sarcastic and sometimes heartwarming. Touching base with this again has given me the motivation to re-read all of my old comic strip collections again.
August 23, 2013
"First day on the job, and they treat me like dirt." says Jason Fox as one of the greatest sitcom comics begins. From being terrorized by iguanuas, to falling on your face when you try to make your first kiss, Foxtrot, by Bill Amend is one of the best. The strip starts out as an explaination of all places that have viloence in the world. But, given that it's a comic, funny things happen just around the corner! The characters are Jason, Paige, Peter, Andy, Roger, and Quincy Fox
October 3, 2013
When I was working in any of the many bookstores where I was employed and I did not want (or have the time) to read my current book, I would grab one of these collections to read on my too short break. I slowly but surely worked my way through several series. These are great time killers and will usually improve your mood no matter how hectic the day. Laughter can be the best solution to dealing with the public.
A collection of earlier, smaller collections.
A collection of earlier, smaller collections.
December 31, 2019
FINALLY! This is the first FoxTrot collection I ever read, and it was missing the first entire *half* of the book! I just got a new copy and finally know how the strip begins! Obviously the drawings are a little more raw and off model than the later strips would be, but they still show an extraordinary range of emotion, evoking sympathy and hilarity in equal turns. Really great to start the series from the beginning. Now on to the second collection!
Read
September 25, 2010The 1st half or so of this book (up to ~p75) is a verbatim copy of the collection FoxTrot. I can't find any annotation of what the rest is from, though I have my suspicions.
Ok, got it--it's from Pass The Loot, which I also have. But it's not strictly redundant, as this edition does have color pages.
Ok, got it--it's from Pass The Loot, which I also have. But it's not strictly redundant, as this edition does have color pages.
March 5, 2014
I hadn't realized that Fox Trot had been around as long as it has. This first treasury contains strips beginning in 1990. The artwork isn't as polished as it would be later, but the characters and the humor are.
August 18, 2007
There's no other way of saying it except that FoxTrot is made of awesome. Amen!
November 13, 2007
foxtrot is one of the few cartoons that has ever consistently made me laugh out loud. i can read them over and over again if i need a good cheering-up.
June 26, 2008
I really enjoyed this one since it started with the first Foxtrot comic.
July 14, 2008
love fox trot.....can't believe that it too is no longer being written. no m ore calvin and hobbes, no more far side, no more fox trot.....and yet for better, or worse continues.
August 21, 2008
A classic.
December 25, 2008
Just plain fun to read. My son and I read these for years. They are enjoyable--just simple fun.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews