FoxTrot Goes Sunday-Only

Citing deadlines and the desire to explore other creative outlets, FoxTrot creator Bill Amend has announced that the December 30 cartoon will be the last daily FoxTrot strip. The wildly popular strip will begin a Sunday-only publication schedule on December 31. Click on the following links to read the full press release and follow-up article from Universal Press Syndicate. There is also a nice article on MSNBC.com, in which pop culture writer Gael Fashingbauer Cooper reacts to the FoxTrot announcement.

FYI - FoxTrot will continue to be sent out in daily My Comics Page emails even after the strip goes to its new Sunday-only schedule. Classic FoxTrot strips will run Monday through Saturday; the new Sunday strips will run on Sundays. And My Comics Page members will continue to have unlimited access to 10+ years of daily FoxTrot cartoons through the My Comics Page archives. If you aren't already a member, you can sign up for My Comics Page here.

Comments

[Ryan]

Thanks for all the strips. I loved Jason Fox. During the week, papers should get Frazz to replace Fox Trot. It'd appeal to the same audience. You can check it out at www.comics.com. He looks like a grown up Calvin. The strip is brilliant and way underrated.

[Sid]

"As far as The Boondocks goes, I certainly won't miss it as it was racist in reverse (it's okay for blacks to be racist, but not whites)."

Not really in reverse. Racism is racism.

[Michelle]

Bill Amend is going to Sundays-only, the comic isn't gone totally just yet!

I will miss my daily though.

Thanks Bill for your years of providing us quality comics.

[Arron]

This is most unfortunate. Foxtrot is one of only three comics that I read on a daily basis. I hope that this will only be temporary. I will miss the laughs and insight that he brought to an industry that has begun to become stale.

[Keith]

"Foxtrot" will be missed and is a remnder that the Comics page was once a wonderful place of orginal thought and art. Those of us old enough already miss the giants "Pogo", "Calvin & Hobbes", "Bloom County", and "Far Side". There are some promising strips like "Prickly City" that "Pickles" that will keep me reading. It is sad to drduge through the Garfields to find the quality strips but they are still there.

[Greg]

Sad to see Fox Trot go away from the dailies. It's been my favorite ever since Calvin and Hobbes went away. I agree with a lot of the opinions here on what's good and bad in the comics. Hate to see a great one go away. Nobody has created a family strip like Bill Amend.

Maybe his wife will get tired of him and send him back to work.

[Greg]

Sad to see Fox Trot go away from the dailies. It's been my favorite ever since Calvin and Hobbes went away. I agree with a lot of the opinions here on what's good and bad in the comics. Hate to see a great one go away. Nobody has created a family strip like Bill Amend.

Maybe his wife will get tired of him and send him back to work.

[zerotsm]

Yes, I'll miss FoxTrot, but trying to come up with fresh ideas every day is hard. You can only do so many variants of turning up the thermostat after all. And I'm sure a lot of people didn't get the computer jokes, such as the "Kernel Panic" although I enjoyed them immensley. At least we will still get to read the Sunday strip.

[JTR]

I highly recommend Ink Pen and Lio to anyone looking for a daily fill in Foxtrot's absence.

[JDS]

I have loved Foxtrot from the first. Thank you, Mr. Amend, for making me laugh when I didn't think I could. My three boys have grown to love your work as much as I do. The books we've collected (all of them) are just about worn out, some with the covers falling off!

Those looking for good strips, please try Zits, Baby Blues, Stone Soup and Sherman's Lagoon. :)

[The Archer of the Forest]

This does make me sad. I first started reading Foxtrot many years ago when I was actually about the age of the kids in Foxtrot. I could always feel like a teenager again by tuning into Foxtrot. I guess now I will have to grow up and have to be a teenager only on Sundays.

[Becky]

Mr Amend,
Thank you for years of Foxtrot. I will be looking forward to Sundays and treasure each comic as I have before. The Fox family was like a neighbor and I'll miss seeing them everyday.

[Dancer]

I understand Mr. Amend's decision and know the Sundays will be that much better--best of luck!

[nebraskateacher]

As has been said before, I too will grieve and miss the daily dose of Foxtrot. As a math teacher, brother of a sports fanatic, and son of a golf nut, these characters came to life for me.

And to all who are complaining of comics that are still around when they should have been retired, YOU come up with a better comic strip and submit it. See if you can develope a comic that is more entertaining and insightful than the ones you complain about.

[John]

It seems like over the past 11 years or so, many golden comic strips have disapeared. In 1995 it was "The Far Side" and "Calvin and Hobbes" then in 2000 it was "Peanuts". Now with the semi-retirment of "FoxTrot" it seems like one of the last goldies. I respect Bill's choice to leave though, and look forward to his Sundays. A few people mentioned "Garfield" was going bad, I totaly disagree. Long live the "FoxTrot" Sunday strips, and long live "Garfield", "Pearls Before Swine", "Get Fuzzy", "Dilbert", "The Family Circus", "Dennis The Menace" and all the great comics out there.

[JTR]

John, what are you smoking? Family Circus and Dennis the Menace? I laughed more during Sophie's Choice than I ever did at those two dinosaurs.

[David]

While I consider Fox Trot a funny (not 100% of the time, but which strip is?) comic strip, the genre of "frozen in time" comics has always bothered me. I mean for crying out loud why can't Jeremy in Zits at least realize his 16th birthday?? Likewise it might be interesting to see the Fox family start to age and mature.

I've always liked following the maturing process in For Better of for Worse (Of course they will now "die" in the Fall...) and thought that it was natural, more so then watching a terminally 14 yr. old Paige. Remember that one of the grandads of comics, Gasoline Alley aged it's characters, yet it remained amusing and interesting.

[Allan]

Thanks for all the humour, wisdom, and overall commentary!!! I will miss them, but perhaps you've something else in mind for Sundays. Is this an evolutionary step? Perhaps you've something else in mind for them, as they're larger and full colour. Any chance of having a Saturday AND Sunday? We await your next creation!

[Rik]

I will certainly miss the daily reading of Foxtrot (yes, even here in the Netherlands we read Bill's wonderful strip :), but am glad I had a daily shot all these years. Once a week from now on, and may be something else nice to come from Bill...

[Majken, Sweden]

although I also understand mr Amend - it´s always good to try new things I´m sad over this.

A daily laugh is gone.

Atleast there will be the sunday-strips to read.

[Mike]

This is very disheartening news. Like others have said, it's sad when our favorite strip ends. First Calvin and Hobbes and now Fox Trot. While there are other strips that are entertaining to read, they aren't ones that would make me take the time out of the day to grab the comic pages and read em. C&H and FoxTrot were the only 2 that ever made me do that. The detail and knowledge about some of the strips in fox trot were just amazing. (physics, comptuers, gaming, sci fi, movies, tv, etc. Basically all the things I'm interested in.) Not being able to read a new strip every day will be sad. I own every book and often read them over and over before going to sleep. I hope someday Bill gets a renewed sense of motivation and will continue to produce daily strips =).

[Ragnar]

Oh well,at least Jason finally gets to join the "ex-files". ;-P
Thanks for all the laughs.

[Maronan]

Oh no!

My local newspaper dropped FoxTrot some time ago, but I always purchased the comics in books whenever they came out. Now there'll be no more books!

At least FoxTrot will go the way of Calvin and Hobbes rather than the way of Peanuts. I remember Calvin and Hobbes as a great strip, whereas I remember Peanuts as the strip that got really crazy as the author got old and ran out of ideas. Better to quit while you're ahead...

Either way, my local newspaper is currently in the habit of replacing good strips like FoxTrot with mediocre or even bad ones like Agnes or Get Fuzzy or Girls and Sports (which, I'm guessing, is only funny to the select few people who fit or believe the gender stereotypes that serve as its only source of "humor.")

Even Lola and Boondocks were removed, while Cathy was retained despite the fact that it has no jokes. All the characters in Cathy are stereotypes— the stereotypical oblivious and electronics-obsessed man, the stereotypical superficial and clothing-obsessed woman, the stereotypical helpful but burdensome mother, the stereotypical overbearing mother-in-law; even the dogs are stereotypical to some extent. The only "humor" in Cathy is derived from the stereotypes' failure to understand each other. Nearly every punch line and comic in Cathy can be reduced to either:

1. One character obsesses over electronics or clothing (depending on which character) and another fails to recognize the importance of the item(s) to the first character

or

2. One character is upset because (s)he cannot obtain electronics or clothing (depending on which character) that (s)he places importance on.

For a change of pace, sometimes female characters obsess over diets and weight rather than clothes and accessories.

Anyway, so long Mr. Amend and thanks for all the strips! Hopefully, you'll get the motivation to resume daily comics soon!

[pete]

are you crazy? get fuzzy is not a bad strip. it is the funniest strip out there. go read family circus loser.

[Jon]

Like so many others on here, I will also miss Foxtrot. I want to thank Mr. Amend for the many laughs and wonderful work that he has done.

Many have said that he should come back and do another strip. I am not so sure of that. Berkeley Breathed came back to do Outland after Bloom County. It wasn't horrible, but it was nowhere near as good as BC. Recently, he started doing 'Opus'. I don't know about anybody else, but I could do without it.

Again, thank you, Mr. Amend. Your work has brought numerous smiles to my face. God be with you in your endeavors.