List of minor FoxTrot characters

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This page lists characters of the FoxTrot comic strip that are minor, infrequent in their appearances or no longer appear in the strip.

[edit] Infrequent recurring characters

Grandma: Andy's mother, whom everybody loves and calls perfect, especially in comparison to Andy herself. Needless to say, this doesn't make Andy herself feel very good, and their feud has been going on since Andy was in seventh grade (when Andy would be scolded by her mother in front of her friends, and her friends took her mother's side). Grandma's real name is not known (since she is Andy's mother, her last name wouldn't be Fox, but rather Andy's maiden name). The two appeared to have made peace on their first meeting, but affairs have relapsed since then.^[1]

Phoebe Wu: A friend of Eileen. They met at Camp Bohrmore in 1997. She kept a journal for her time at camp, even saving samples of the food there. Although initially bitter rivals with Jason and Marcus, the four eventually formed an "Ultra-Secret Friendship Club" while at camp, something the two boys have had varying cause to regret since then.

Eugene Wu: Phoebe's arrogant and egotistical brother. His friends call him The Brain - or at least, they would, if he had any friends. He once arrived in Jason and Marcus's neighborhood along with his sister Phoebe and succeeded in breaking Jason, Marcus, Eileen, and Phoebe's friendship club by stealing Phoebe's camp journal and planting clues incriminating various members of the club. It is implied that an IQ test showed that Phoebe is technically smarter than Eugene, and as a result Eugene struggles to prove that he is not inferior to his sister (according to him, this is because of the margin of error on the test).

Katherine "Katie" O'Dell is the toddler daughter of the eccentric Mrs. O'Dell, for whom Paige often babysits. She is portrayed as being a typical hyperactive toddler who makes a fuss and spits her food out (all over Paige's face) when she is fed, and who is obsessed with "Blue's Clues."^[2] Never seen behaving normally, the little girl has turned out to be too much for Paige to handle on many occasions. Once, Katie overheard an expletive uttered on the "Jerzy Spaniel" (a takeoff on "Jerry Springer", the only time it was nicknamed) talk show while Paige was watching, and proceeded to say the offending word over and over, causing Paige to swear in front of Katie. Katie begins to repeat both words and Paige manages to get into major trouble with Mrs. O'Dell (she was only paid a penny for that babysitting session)^[3]. On another occasion, Katie chopped up her pretty new dress with a pair of scissors while Paige was napping, and Paige ended up having to buy Katie a new dress with her own babysitting pay. ^[4]She is one of the few characters that has actually aged in the strip.

J. P. Pembrook is the CEO of Roger's company. He relies on Roger to do his million-dollar deals because of his past successes – unaware they are done by a ten-year-old (Jason). We never see his face, only his hands; given his ruthless personality, that may be a good thing. He has won the Iron Fist Award and the Golden Gallows Award, according to trophies seldom seen on his desk. His first two initials seem to be a nod towards financier J. P. Morgan. He has a son, J.P. Junior, whom Roger once entertained by dressing up as a clown.^[5] Early on, in a strip in FoxTrot: The Works, Pembrook's initials were "R. T.".

Miss Rockbottom: Paige's gym teacher. Paige once called her a "power-hungry neo-Nazi fascist tub of lard," but believes she took it as a compliment.^[6]

Dr. Ting: Paige's biology teacher, who has come to rely on her lab reports as a source of weekend entertainment.^[7] It was suggested that he and the other teachers make less than minimum wage.^[8]

Hawkins: A camper at Camp Bohrmore when Jason attended one summer. He is apparently a genius hacker and has a 50-digit-long encryption code. Jason once got one of his (apparently wide-spread) viruses. One of his many aliases on the internet is the "Night Ninja"

Mr. Martini/Mr. Rawthroat: The principal of Jason and Marcus' school. He is seen very infrequently, typically when Jason is in trouble. Jason did see Mr. Martini voluntarily one time to ask what happened to his comic strip that was going to appear in the school newspaper.

Slug Man and Leech Boy are comic book characters created by Jason in a Batman parody (though Slug Man's appearance seems more akin to Superman). Slug Man and Leech Boy are almost always fighting their arch-enemy, Paige-O-Tron, the most evil robot in the universe (although they once were said to have had an "epic battle with Gargantutron [a monstrous cookie] last summer"). Jason has tried to sell Slug Man and Leech Boy merchandise several times. He has also made Slug Man wall calendars and once wallpapered his room with Slug Man comics. There is an entire Slug Man comic (The Adventures of Slug Man: "The Final Confrontation III") at the end of the FoxTrot en masse anthology, which also features a fake advertisement for Slug Man products, all made by Jason. Bill Amend has a Slug Man computer game, based on Joust, available on his Web site. [1]

[edit] Characters who no longer appear in the strip

Pierre is a perfect French lover who only appears in Paige's daydreams.^[9] Usually his appearance occurs at the same time Jason is actually doing something to tease her. For example, if Paige is dreaming of kissing Pierre, in actuality it might be Jason holding Quincy up to her lips. Usually, all Paige says to Pierre's antics is "Ooo, Pierre!" However, Pierre has not made a new appearance since the strip of July 5, 1998.

Fred is a coworker of Roger's. Fred often plays golf with him (and always wins), and Roger apparently considers Fred to be well informed about all things popular. He hasn't appeared in the strip since the early years, but he is mentioned every so often.

Fauntleroy: A bull terrier Peter had to baby sit a few occasions. Although Fauntleroy is tiny, Peter always got received bites and scratches from the dog. Peter referred to the dog as a 'canine piranha'.

Linda Downer: Peter's unrequited crush before he met Denise, has not appeared since 1988. Apparently a friend of Paige.^[10]

Miss Grinchley: Jason and Marcus' teacher before Miss O'Malley.^[11] Despite her name, she does not seem reminiscent of the Grinch. It is implied that she used to "go bonkers" in response to Jason's antics in class (which, of course, encouraged Jason to misbehave even more). Miss O'Malley replaced Miss Grinchley after she retired in 1991.

Chris Morrissey: A senior student who took Paige to the prom in 1989, despite Peter's objections. Chris was a male chauvinist, as shown by his sexual harassment towards Paige at the dance and when he was driving her home. Chris ended his behavior after Paige threatened to spray him with mace. ^[12]

Mitch Kellog: A partying senior. Mitch had a party at his house in 1989 that Paige and Nicole attended. He tried to get Paige to get stoned with a bong, do lines (of cocaine), and go to bed with him, but Paige turned him down ("Mitch, I'd rather sleep with a dead sewer rat than you."), eventually having to punch him in the nose. ^[13]

Skip Riley: Roger's summer intern in 1990, the ultimate sycophant, who even called Roger his "light and inspiration", before jumping ship to become an intern for Charles Diggs, the head of Roger's department. The amount of time Roger and Skip spent together made Peter intensely jealous, but Roger didn't realize how much Peter's feelings had been hurt until after Skip had left.

Mr. Krimpshaw: The vice principal of the high school that Peter and Paige attend. He showed up one time when Peter punched Mike Barnes' nose to bleeding (in response to Mike teasing Peter about Denise's blindness). Mr. Krimpshaw scared Peter by telling him that part of the punishment for his violent action would entail Krimpshaw calling Peter's parents.^[14]

Mindy: A girl in Peter's English class who wanted to go to the school's holiday formal in December 1993, seeing how Denise was going to visit her grandmother. Peter, having already paid for his tux, limo, and dinner reservations, was torn between taking Mindy out and not hurting Denise's feelings. In the end, Mindy ended up falling in love with Steve.^[15]

Gretchen: Miss O'Malley's unseen boa constrictor, whom Jason wrote a Valentine for in 1994. Andy stumbled upon Jason's Valentine for her and thought Gretchen was a girl in Jason's school. Upon finding out that Gretchen was a snake, Andy told Jason that she thought Gretchen was a human girl, to which Jason replied, "EEW! GROSS! ICK! What kind of a weirdo do you think I am?!"^[16]

Tommy Smith: A boy in Paige's biology class who took her to the school dance in 1994. It took him a long while to ask her because he is too shy. Nevertheless, he is perhaps Paige's only successful date.^[17]

The Tamagrouchy: Paige received a Tamagrouchy from her father in August 1997. It is similar to a Tamagotchi which requires feeding and care, except that it is has a grouchy personality. It frequently insults Paige and actually has conversations with people, which is much more advanced than a normal Tamagotchi. It has extremely complicated instructions (to give it a glass of water, you must press buttons A and C together, then hold button B for three seconds, then tap button C twice, then press button A, then button C, then press button B, then do the whole process backward). When Paige threatened to neglect it and let it die, it claimed that unlike Tamagotchis, Tamagrouchys become immortal if neglected. Paige eventually was so annoyed by the toy that she gave the Tamagrouchy to Jason to reprogram, with somewhat disastrous results for Paige.

Robo-Pup:a pink robot puppy that Paige received for Christmas one year. Unlike a usual robotic pet, Robo-Pup roamed the house freely and was an annoyance to everyone quite similarly to Quincy - in fact, it even chewed up one of Jason's comic books. Peter and Jason were seen making robo-fleas for it.

[edit] References