Bill Amends treasury, Wrapped-Up FoxTrot , will leave FoxTrot fans with a lasting impression and a lot of laughs.
Now a Sunday-only strip, this anthology includes colored Sundays as well as the final dailies of the comic Entertainment Weekly said "is the most idiosyncratic one to debut since Calvin and Hobbes ."
Fans get all the family angst and antics they can handle with a collection of stories and experiences that only Jason, Peter, Paige, and parents can provide. Life is always fresh, topical, and irreverent in this wacky house.
* Amend's FoxTrot won the National Cartoonists Society's prestigious Reuben Award in 2007.
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.
As a long time fan of Foxtrot, it was kind of bittersweet to read this collection, featuring the last of the daily strips. However, that melancholy wasn't reinforced by anything in the collection - aside from a fourth-wall-bending set of 6 final strips that don't really provide closure (since it wasn't ending, just morphing forms), there's no real sense of loss or ennui or change. I appreciate that Mr. Amend determined he was no longer reaching the bar on quality and left before the strip started to suffer for it. And honestly, there isn't too much sense of a quality dip here - aside from a week-long series about comic strip creators not getting paid enough, this is a pretty strong book - I especially appreciated the cleverness of several of the included sunday strips (the Sudorku and the Morse Code ones especially). It's always sad when a mainstay of comic strip humor packs it up, or even cuts back, but there are still all the collections and previous comics to re-read and continue to enjoy. So thank you Mr. Amend for all the years of pleasure you've provided, and for all the Sundays going forward.
I had one second to choose a book at the library and grabbed this. I haven't read FoxTrot in years - which may have something to do with the fact that apparently it's a Sunday only strip now. Or(more likely)with the fact that I only pick up a newspaper about twice a year, and that it's whatever section someone left lying on the seat on the light rail. Anyway, these strips are funny and clever and if nothing else the book is worth reading solely for the week where the nerdy little boy decides he can start writing Boondocks while that cartoonist is on vacation.
I am sad that this book was the last of the weeklies for Fox Trot. It is hard to imagine that it went out of print at the end of 2006. It seems like such a regular staple, and yet still enjoyable with the new Sunday's every week. Even hard to take was that we're so far into the future and he was talking about the Wii back then. I hope Mr. Amend has realized his dream(s), even if they include endless hours of a MMPORG. My favorite strip of this book was Jason's attempt to find a better Rand() function ... truly a nerdy endeavor who's nuances would be lost on Paige.
Humorous anthology of Foxtrot comic strips, with the final daily strips, as Bill Amend semi-retired and transitioned to a Sunday-only format.
Since the book features strips from about a decade ago, quite a bit of the pop culture references are very dated, and our girls didn't get all of them.
And many of the strips were featured in other collections, so I am starting to see more repeats. It's okay, but I'm glad I borrowed the book from the library, rather than buying it.
On the whole, it's an entertaining book with many witty observations about family life in America. We all enjoy reading them.
This is a fun Foxtrot book with adventures in school, sibling relationships, & the occasional Andy vs. Roger strip. Some of the comics were slightly dated, referencing Hurricane Katrina, but aside from one, they've held their humor well. Other series include Jason & Sgt. Neelie on World of Warcraft & Jason & Peter visiting an Apple computer store. It's hard to pick a favorite series, though I always enjoy the various holiday strips, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas. The concluding strips to the dailies are included.
Reading this treasury is bittersweet for the simple reason that it's the last one of Amend's daily strips before he semi-retired. It's still as hillariously funny as all his other Foxtrots but with every strip I read, I keep wishing I wouldn't be coming towards the end of the book. I really will miss Foxtrot when it's gone!
If you're a true fan of FoxTrot then this last collection is a must have for your collection. It collects the last daily strips of this classic strip and all the adventures of Jason, Peter, Paige and the rest of the family. My one wish is that they would have included some commentary or extra features (like Pearls Before Swine does), but that's never been Amend's style.
The final collection of the daily antics of the Fox family. The jokes still make me laugh, however many of the time the punchlines are familiar at this point.
Wrapped-Up Foxtrot: A Treasury With the Final Daily Strips by Bill Amend (Andrews-McMeel Publishing LLC 2009)(741.5973) was as funny and entertaining as always. My rating: 7/10; finished 10/25/11.
Not bad, but most of the characters from outside the family had little to no screen time, which was a bit disappointing. Also there were a lot of self-referential/breaking the fourth wall type jokes, which aren't terrible but they're typically best served in smaller doses
I've long been a fan of _Foxtrot_, and was very sorry to see Amend end its daily run. This final collection provided a lot of chuckles over my Thanksgiving break.
I love this series of books. I have probably read all of the books in this series except for maybe a couple. This book is about the Fox family and their holiday encounters. Peter Fox loves to eat which means he probably will eat all of what they are eating for Thanksgiving. Paige Fox tries to go through the world of high school where nobody will ask her to the winter formal so she has to go with Peter. Jason Fox, the nerd of the family, goes through his 6th-grade year where he tries not to be asked out by Eliane his crush. He doesn't want to admit that he has a crush but he does. Andy and Rodger both have to make it through the holidays of wrapping presents while overcoming the stress of staying up all night wrapping presents for their kids.
Another funny collection of FoxTrot strips, including the final daily strips before cartoonist Bill Amend switched to Sundays only. You don’t have to be a nerd to enjoy FoxTrot, but it helps!
Wrapped-Up FoxTrot: A Treasury with the Final Daily Strips by Bill Amend -- I love how Bill Amend helps us say goodbye to this iconic family! Happy Reading!