Black Bart Says Draw: A FoxTrot Collection

FoxTrot (B&W) #3

by Bill Amend

In this FoxTrot collection, cartoons feature life in the Fox family, including Peter's on-and-off romance, Paige's passion for shopping, their little brother Jason's plots to torment Paige, and their parents' efforts to cope with them all.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Cartoon, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bill 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.

Reviews

[Bean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit, the earlier versions aren't as good as later comics. Still funny though.

[Mita · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's no other way of saying it except that FoxTrot is made of awesome. Amen!

[James Idsardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The time capsule comments from another review are right on the money: Amend’s acute sense for pop-culture references allow this to serve as an accurate tonal reproduction of early 1990s suburban life. Reading this thirty years after the fact, this comes with a couple of minor culture shocks, though thankfully none of them seem malicious. (The most notable being a week-long Simpsons-centric storyline overlapping with the airing of its first season, the commentary of which seems both surreal given what it has become, and a helpful insight into how the show was actually viewed as it was coming out.) The comic strip as a whole benefits from having a high floor of quality, and while this collection still has Amend struggling with it a bit early on, it feels by the end that he has rounded into form in being able to formulate a better progression for week-long joke sequences, as well as indulging more in the absurdist side of his sense of humor. The more “serious” strips here tend to be Amend’s highlights, as he has a good sense of what jokes he can pair with them that elicit a good laugh without undermining the pathos. Working entirely from memory, it’s also remarkable how a couple of elements crop up here (Roger and Andy’s work lives, Denise) that become gradually excised towards the second half of the weekly run. While I only think the last of these is notably strong, it does allow for a couple of interesting angles for humor that dry up later as Amend has an increased desire to focus on other things. Only a little over two years into the strip, it’s not surprising that he’s still figuring things out, but it does feel like it’s rapidly approaching the point where it is consistently great. Like most of the other collections, an easy recommendation to anyone with fondness for newspaper strips.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did laugh out loud, but my is the computer stuff oh so dated.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reread from when I was younger. Used to love Foxtrot. Fun to revisit.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good light reading for sitting in the basement waiting for the tornado warning to expire.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Meghan Bohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Umpteenth re-read.

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5. Foxtrot is such an elite comic. The family dynamic of the Fox family feels so real, and I was always able to see our family in the writing. The writing ages like wine as well.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book from my childhood that I owned.

[Valerie]

Cartoons from 1989 and 1990. If I were picking a book to put in a time capsule, I'd probably pick one of these books. Amend has a nice sense of detail, and he uses many details from popular culture in his strips. Odd, given that he tends to slight visual details in his drawing. But there are odd bits of visual detail, too, mostly fantasies about honoring cartoonists. Worth looking for.

[Narariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of early Foxtrot, the adventures range from a family vacation (& getting there) to school & prom. The Lone Iguana appears, Paige struggles with school, & other light-hearted looks at life fill the book. It's definitely something to cheer someone up. I'll definitely be re-reading it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sibling rivalry at its finest, as Peter, Paige, and the wunderkind Jason express their disdain for each other. When Peter's prom date, his blind girlfriend Denise, must cancel at the last minute, he ends up taking Paige to the prom instead. Meanwhile, Jason uses his pet iguana Quincy as a reptile of mass destruction, since he can't befriend a T. rex.