I have been wanting to start a Foxtrot thread for awhile. It's truly one of the best comic strips out there. Bill Amend is always sending out nice homages to console, classic, PC gamers, tech geeks and movie fans besides it's well defined characters. It's one of the better strips besides Calvin and Hobbes and the more recent greats Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy and Mutts.
But enough blabbering, here are a few recent examples of why Foxtrot is so great. Eventually I will start a thread for some other strips, feel free to talk about your fave Foxtrot moments:
Today's (1/31)
Random Foxtrot stuff that should remind anyone of fighting with their folks over the thermostat:
I've never seen Pearls Before Swine and my paper doesn't carry Mutts. Get Fuzzy is definitely one of my favorites. I'm also partial to The Boondocks, although I don't like how Aaron McGruder passed the art responsibility over to some lady named Jennifer Seng. I really hate her style, it's too anime-ish, it doesn't work with angry black children.
Anyway, not to get too off topic, yes, FoxTrot is one of the best comic strips out there. What constantly amazes me is that it manages to be so family friendly without being corny. It's not really all that edgy, but it manages to not just be making bad puns to appeal to half-baked sentimentality. *cough*Rose Is Rose*cough*
Pearls Before Swine is the greatest weird/crazy humor strip since the Far Side and is brilliant. Mutts is just plain fun humor and each panel is a work of art and a great send up to the great comics of the 1930s like Krazy Kat, ect. I will post examples of both tomorrow.
I have been a rabid Foxtrot fan for going on fifteen years now. Jason truly is one of the greatest characters in today's comics. The only strip to even come close to giving it competition for me is the recent Get Fuzzy. Of course the classics rule like Calvin and the Farside but seeing as how they've been defunct so long I won't even lump them in with today's strips. Todays Foxtrot has a pretty cool homage to Super Mario Brothers btw.
they are Foxtrot (my paper doesn't carry this so I am limited to collections, which i can't get very often), Get Fuzzy, and Doonsbury, and of course Calvin and Hobbes (the art in that strip still amazes me). and yeah Jason kicks ass!
I stopped paying attention to the comics about the time that The Far Side ended. and for the most part I rarely if ever read newspapers anymore. I'm not quite as much a fan of Calvin and Hobbes as some people here, but it's reasonably good, as were Bloom County and Outland. I also like Dilbert on occasion, but half the strips would be just as effective without drawings as with, and I don't think anyone would consider Scott Adams to be a great artist by any means.
Here is today's Foxtrot, this is gonna be a fun week! Haha. Interesting Jason's sculptures look more like Subcon than the Mushroom Kingdom, guess even a kid genius can't sculpt floating brick platforms though.
Thank goodness for being able to read newpaper comics online, my stupid ND paper only carries Foxtrot on Sunday:
Yeah, forgot about Frazz it's quite good too. And in no way a Calvin rip off, it's a genuinely well written comic with great original characters and is a heartfelt homage. It's kinda like "What if Calvin grew up and was well adjusted but still cool and funny?"
Also, about Bill Watterson being a recluse now, I don't think he is miserable. From the reports I have read (there was a long article about both Mallet and Watterson I read last year but cannot find now) he just spends quiet time painting and being with his parents and family in some small town. The ONE beef I have with Watterson is I can understand his stance on marketing because of crap comics like Garfield. But he was such a blasted ZEALOT about having NO Calvin and Hobbes products besidesthe books, which is the reason you see all those stupid Calvin-peeing stickers on the back of every idiot's vehicle who has a beef with Chevy, Ford, their ex-wife or whatever. If he had just defined a FEW liscensed products for the strip we probably wouldn't have any of those because the people that make them would be getting lawyer's letters. The stickers are now so outta control I doubt United Media could do anythign about it.
While Bill Watterson's stuff is generally quite good, he's always seemed something of an elitist as far as the comics go. He seems to think that the comics page should be reserved for crusty octogenarians (who usually stopped being funny years ago) given half a page apiece. Funny though they may be, the comics are trash art, and always have been trash art. If you want proof, click here.
Vexorg wrote:Funny though they may be, the comics are trash art, and always have been trash art.
Methinks that's a bit unfair...true, many newspaper comics have been shallow over the years, but that doesn't mean that the medium doesn't possess the potential to be aesthetically sound and serious in its message. Like any other art form, the quality within a cartoon depends on the person holding the pen or brush which creates it.
Interestingly, there's a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip which touches on this a bit, I'll hafta try to dig it up...
Vexorg wrote:Funny though they may be, the comics are trash art, and always have been trash art.
Trash art? They are accessible. This is one of their merits. If by trash art you mean they don't compare don't compare to fine art (painting, sculpture), then that's not so bad. Nobody gives a shit about that stuff anyway.
Andi wrote:Nobody gives a shit about that stuff anyway.
...and on the flipside of that coin, I'll hafta disagree with that one as well, heh. Any cartoonist will tell you that knowledge and mastery of classical art techniques are essential to producing what looks to most like a simple comic strip...
Vexorg wrote:Funny though they may be, the comics are trash art, and always have been trash art.
Methinks that's a bit unfair...true, many newspaper comics have been shallow over the years, but that doesn't mean that the medium doesn't possess the potential to be aesthetically sound and serious in its message. Like any other art form, the quality within a cartoon depends on the person holding the pen or brush which creates it.
Interestingly, there's a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip which touches on this a bit, I'll hafta try to dig it up...
CALVIN: A painting. Moving. Spiritually enriching. Sublime."High" art. The comic strip. Vapid. Juvenile. Commercial hack work."Low" art. A painting of a comic strip panel. Sophisticated irony. Philosophically challenging."High" art.
HOBBES: Suppose I draw a cartoon of a painting of a comic strip?
CALVIN: Sophomoric. Intellectually sterile. "Low" art.
Today's was a "Tron" reference. This strip must be set in 1983, since no kid today would be familiar with that game, much less pretend to play it outside.
sffan wrote:Today's was a "Tron" reference. This strip must be set in 1983, since no kid today would be familiar with that game, much less pretend to play it outside.
Yeah, I've noticed Jason's tastes seem decidedly old school. Today he was recreating Pac-Man. It's especially odd considering that he seems to generally just play games like Iron Mysticus and Super Earthworm Mario Country 3. When was the last time he played a real game? And what the hell was he doing "playing" Tomb Raider. He hates Tomb Raider, he had a nightmare where Lara Croft was tormenting him.
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I won't even lump them in with today's strips. Todays Foxtrot has a pretty cool homage to Super Mario Brothers btw.
