Foxtrotius Maximus: A Foxtrot Treasury

I've been a Foxtrot reader for a long time and personally I think there is something suspiciously wrong with people who don't find Bill Amend's characters funny as all get out. If you want a good laugh, check out Bill in your local newspaper, or better yet, get one of the Foxtrot books. They are all great, really, they are. Like many of Mr. Amend's fans I'm a bit disappointed he's switching his strip to Sunday-only, but fortunately I can still read him daily in the Foxtrot books. Get them one and all and you can keep right on a laughing.

"Foxtrotius Maximus" is another treasury in the vast collection of "Fox Trot" books by Bill Amend. If you are unfamiliar with "Fox Trot", I suggest reading it today, as it's one of the funniest and most down to earth strips in todays newspaper. Compared to aging strips such as "Blondie" and "Gasoline Alley", "Fox Trot" is a good sign of the world we live in today. It reminds me a lot of "Calvin and Hobbes", which if you are a fan of you will be a fan of "Fox Trot". The chronicles of the Fox family are often simple situations made hilarious. Andrea "Andy" Fox is the mother and materarchial member of the family. More the disciplinarian, she has a passion for English, writing, and making new meals with tofu and eggplant, which her family gives thumbs down for. Roger Fox is the father of the family. Jolly, goofy, and kind of dim witted, most of the strips involving him deal with him messing up and the reactions of the kids or Andy to him trying to cook breakfast, do the laundry, etc. Peter Fox is the oldest sibling, and is the popular older brother type. He likes sports, music, and has an endless stomach. He has a girlfriend named Denise who he tends to upset with his stupidity towards other girls, and though he is on the baseball team, he seems to do them more harm than good. He also has a lead foot when driving a car. Paige Fox is the middle child and the only girl of the family. She is boy crazy, hoping to get a boyfriend, is new to high school, loves desserts, and is driven nuts by her little brother, and by far my favorite character of all, Jason Fox. Jason is a 10 year old fifth grader who has a genius I.Q. He loves school and finishes his entire homework for the year on the first day of school. The rest of the time he spends creating money making schemes, playing new computer games, launching rockets, and driving his sister Paige crazy. His best friend is Marcus, who also loves school like Jason, and he has a mild crush on Eileen Jacobson, a girl who likes Jason and that Jason likes back, but can't admit to it because of his "reputation" of hating girls and coodies that he might get. Every "Fox Trot" collection deals with these characters and scenarios, and this one is no exception. Pick it up if you are a fan of "Fox Trot" or love comic strips like "Calvin and Hobbes" or "For Better or For Worse."

I discovered the Fox family when I went away to college and encountered some new strips in the local newspapers. It's been almost 10 years since then, and I still love this strip. This book collects 2 years worth of strips into one book. These strips were previous released as "Your Momma Thinks Square Roots are Vegetables," "Who's Up for Some Bonding?" and "Am I a Mutant, or What!" What I appreciate is that Bill Amend is still able to find the humor in situations we already know. After all, has anything changed in this family since the strip started? Nope. Yet I found myself smiling, giggling, and laughing my way through this wonderful collection. As always, current culture and daily life are offered up with humor and satire. I've always been a sucker for Jason's over the top reactions to movies, and here we get the first two Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Star Wars Episode II, and Harry Potter. That week in particular is funny with the inclusion of Eileen into the mix. On the home front, we get Peter listening to "The Odyssey" in his sleep, Rodger making a trip to Costclub for Halloween candy, Peter getting sick right before Thanksgiving, and Paige getting an autographed picture of the Backsync Boys. Truly great comic strips seem to be hard to find these days, so I really treasure the ones I find. This is one of the best and will entertain anyone looking to laugh at themselves and our culture.

As much as I love FoxTrot, I've held off on the collection, buying the treasuries instead. Sure, it means I have to wait longer for my fix, but I wind up with a much more managable collection that way. This most recent collection collects the last couple of years of the comic strip, including staples like Jason's geeking out for the "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" movies, and other things like the strip's quiet and touching statement on September 11. In a day where many newspaper comic strips have become bland and homogenized, pale reflections of great strips of the past, FoxTrot remains sharp, funny and clever, with characters instead of caricatures, timely stories that comment on pop culture and the techno world and the occasional flash of brilliance. This is the best thing about picking up a newspaper in the morning.

It's ironic that people who are buying books aren't reading carefully. The complaint of other readers here is that Amend has republished older strips...Well, that's always been the case with the bigger "treasury" books- all the smaller ones get published into a bigger anthology. If you don't have the previous three books, then get this anthology. Fox Trot is my favorite comic strip- Amend has a creative sense of humor and a great memory of what it was like to be a kid.