Eight Yards Down and Out: A FoxTrot Collection

FoxTrot (B&W) #4

by Bill Amend

FoxTrot is a comic strip with attitude, wit and a big dose of reality. Bill Amend's brilliant understanding of sibling rivalry and generational struggles comes to life in a refreshing blend of humor and truth. Readers of all ages will love this glimpse into family life with the FoxTrot gang. Come and laugh with Roger and Andy, and their kids Peter, Paige and Jason.

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

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Josh Caporale]

I have been familiar with Foxtrot and own a few collections. This is not the first, but I did read this in its entirety to prepare for a discussion on Literary Gladiators. This collection covers August 1990 until mid-1991 and the Fox family featuring father Roger, mother Andie, and their three children: Peter (age 16), Paige (age 14), and Jason (age 10), and days within their lives. I thought that the humor was creative and was executed very well. There was nothing in here that made me laugh out loud, but there was enough in here that kept me engaged and entertained. I am inclined to read more Foxtrot collections.

[Taija]

I forgot how much I loved these books. I mean, I always knew I loved them, but I forgot what it felt like to be reading them. I laughed out loud long and hard many times.

This was a nostalgic read for me!!!

[Jdetrick]

It's interesting; Fox Trot isn't as different as many of the comics I read. It's characters are relatively normal stereotypes, and I often wish they had a little more nuance. What saves the strip is that it's actually funny. It's amazing how many sins that will cover up.

[James Idsardi]

This feels like a more consistent and refined release than the last collection, with Amend growing more comfortable with crafted extended storylines and doing a better job at shifting up the variety of jokes. Although there was certainly plenty of good material that came before, reading through these brings back the first distinct memory of storylines and jokes that I had from reading it as a child, and especially towards the end of the collection it feels like Amend firmly integrates the specified weirdness that allows so many of his slice-of-life storylines to stand out.

[Karen]

Entertaining.

[Nancy Bandusky]

Fun collection of entertaining situations involving this lovable family. The situations will make the reader laugh or at least smile.

[Meghan Bohn]

Umpteenth re-read.

[Peter]

Can't beat the earlier strips, much better than the new Sunday strips

[James]

A book from my childhood that I owned.

[Susan]

Jason loses his Nintendo privileges and tries to persuade his parents to change their minds in one of the continuing stories in this book of collected cartoons. Sadly, an all too accurate (and funny) look at life in a family. Although the technology may be dated (Nintendo cartridges?) after only 15 years or so, the family dynamics are accurate.

[Valerie]

The technical note at the beginning of this book points out the hazards of printing books without color plates. Part of the joke in the cited cartoons is the color, so it's necessary to explain what the colors ARE.

[Diana]

Jason becomes too focused on beating his best friend at the newest video game and has it. The system is confiscated by his mother only for the reader to discover where the desire to be the best at something comes from dear old dad who becomes just as addicted to the game as his son.

[Mita]

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

[Chronically Book Shark]

The fox family's personalities are really developing and becoming closer to what they are in the present.