Among favorite kinds of books to look for at thrift shops and flea markets are collected editions of newspaper comics. These one-time mainstays on the shelves of Barnes & Noble and Borders (RIP) have almost disappeared, and thanks to the waning polularity of the medium they are probably not widely missed. Or even perhaps thought about all that much at all.

Foxtrot was always one of my favorite comics to read in the newspaper, back when our family had such a thing delivered to our house every day, and this anthology collection is a good reminder of how sharp and consistent it was (still is, I guess, though it carries on as a Sunday-only concern). Each family member is well-defined as a person, and their interactions work well on the surface and even better the more immersed you are in the strip.

The focus tends to fall more on the kids (Peter, Paige, and Jason), especially when it veers into week-long or multi-week stories, and I like how each one of them is portrayed as a little bit less cool than they think they are, but in a relatable rather than a mean-spirited way. Andy and Roger, the parents, get less of the spotlight, but I found myself enjoying the installments that focus on them much more than I did when I was younger and I think the strip does a good job showing them as committed to their family and also wanting to express themselves as individuals.

This collection runs through a few years of late 90s strips, and there’s a good amount of lighthearted nostalgia going through the Fox family’s reactions to pop cultural touchstones like Titanic, the Beanie Baby craze, the release of Windows 98 and the Phantom Menace hype. It’s also got some storylines about the dot com bubble (pre-burst) and day trading that have aged very well in their side-eyed cynicism.