On the Fastrack

Last updated
On the Fastrack
Author(s) Bill Holbrook
Current status/scheduleDaily comic (since 1984)
Launch dateMarch 19, 1984;39 years ago (March 19, 1984)
Syndicate(s) King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)Humor
Followed by Safe Havens

On the Fastrack is a comic strip drawn by Bill Holbrook about the curious characters employed at the fictional data storage firm [1] Fastrack, Inc. Launched March 19, 1984, it was initially distributed by King Features Syndicate to 50 newspapers worldwide, later increasing to 75 papers. King Features offers this summary of the strip:

Contents

On the Fastrack chronicles the comic misadventures at Fastrack Inc., a wry mirror of the contemporary work scene. Ruthless boss Rose Trellis runs Fastrack, Inc. and thrives in an atmosphere of corporate political intrigue and back-stabbing. ... The strip is sprinkled with office romance, computer technology mayhem and lovesick moat monsters.

Publication history

For the first 18 years of its publication, the comic was a "gag a day" strip", with the characters aging very slowly. However, in early 2002, [2] Holbrook explicitly switched to a real time format, wherein the characters aged in real time. This kept On The Fastrack in tandem with its companion strip Safe Havens , which shares some of its characters. However, by the 2010s, characters returned to aging somewhat slowly.

Characters and story

The strip has changed focus several times over the years, though always maintaining lead characters who work at the large firm of Fastrack, Inc.

For the first few years, the strip was originally centered around Bob Shirt, a slightly nebbishy but likable middle-management employee; Melody Acapella, his attractive co-worker; Melody’s daughter Laurel; Art Welding, another co-worker; Bud Spore, these workers' immediate supervisor, then age 17; and the CEO, Rose Trellis.

By the late 1980s, the focal characters were the Weldings: Art and Wendy and their children, Rusty and Patina. Bud, Rose, and (to a lesser extent) Bob and Melody were supporting characters. Bob and Melody, once the lead characters, receded in importance over the years, but still appeared in the strip occasionally, since Melody ran the company day care center, where Patina and Rusty spent their after-school hours. In 2021 Bud indicated that Melody no longer works for the company.

In 2010, Wendy's new assistant, Dethany Dendrobia, was introduced, and arguably became the star of the strip. A smart, generally cheerful, extremely competent Goth, Dethany's appearance consistently leads people to underestimate or misjudge her.

The strip's characters include:

Books

Related Research Articles

Bill Holbrook is an American cartoonist and webcomic writer and artist, best known for his syndicated comic strip On the Fastrack.

<i>Dork Tower</i> Comics by John Kovalic

Dork Tower is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of Madison, Wisconsin. Topics have included role-playing games (RPGs), comic books, video games, and fandom in general. The comic strip began in January 1997 and has made appearances in publications like Dragon magazine, Shadis, and Comic Shop News. Starting in 2000, the strip began web publication roughly three times a week and is featured in Pyramid. The bimonthly comic book made its first appearance in 1998 and features continuing storylines. It has recently gone to full color with issue #32, and it is collected in trade paperback.

<i>Terry and the Pirates</i> Comic strip

Terry and the Pirates is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, had admired Caniff's work on the children's adventure strip Dickie Dare and hired him to create the new adventure strip, providing Caniff with the title and locale. The Dragon Lady leads the evil pirates; conflict with the pirates was diminished in priority when World War II started.

<i>Mutt and Jeff</i> 1907–1983 American comic strip

Mutt and Jeff was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week schedule had previously been pioneered through the short-lived A. Piker Clerk by Clare Briggs, but it was Mutt and Jeff as the first successful daily comic strip that staked out the direction of the future trend.

Kevin and Kell is a furry comedy webcomic strip by syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook. The strip began on September 3, 1995, and is one of the oldest continuously running webcomics. The comic's website states it is "The World's Longest Running Daily Webcomic".

Safe Havens is a comic strip drawn by cartoonist Bill Holbrook. It was originally syndicated by Washington Post Writers Group starting October 3, 1988 as a weekday only strip, the strip switched to King Features Syndicate in 1993. The strip has been published in more than 50 newspapers. The strip originally concerned the group of pre-schoolers at Safe Havens Day Care, but has focused on Samantha and followed her as she has grown up and gone through elementary school, high school, college, and (currently) marriage. The comic then went online in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Gordon</span> DC Comics character

Barbara Gordon is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman. The character was created by television producer William Dozier, editor Julius Schwartz, writer Gardner Fox, and artist Carmine Infantino. Dozier, the producer of the 1960s Batman television series, requested Schwartz to call for a new female counterpart to the superhero Batman that could be introduced into publication and the third season of the show simultaneously. The character subsequently made her first comic-book appearance as Batgirl in Detective Comics #359, titled "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" in January 1967, by Fox and Infantino, allowing her to be introduced into the television series, portrayed by actress Yvonne Craig, in the season 3 premiere "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin", in September that same year.

<i>Casper Meets Wendy</i> 1998 American film

Casper Meets Wendy is a 1998 American fantasy comedy film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon characters Casper the Friendly Ghost and Wendy the Good Little Witch. The film is a sequel to Casper: A Spirited Beginning, and is the second spin-off/prequel of Casper (1995). Saban Entertainment co-produced the project. The film marks the second Casper film to co-star Cathy Moriarty, who previously starred as the villainess in the 1995 film.

<i>Mary Perkins, On Stage</i> American comic strip by Leonard Starr

Mary Perkins, On Stage is an American newspaper comic strip by Leonard Starr for the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. It ran from February 10, 1957, to September 9, 1979, with the switch to the longer title in 1961. Some papers carried the strip under the shortened title Mary Perkins.

<i>Mark Trail</i> American comic strip

Mark Trail is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. As of 2020, King Features syndicated the strip to "nearly 150 newspapers and digital outlets worldwide."

The comic strip switcheroo was a massive practical joke in which several comic strip writers and artists (cartoonists), without the foreknowledge of their editors, traded strips for a day on April Fools' Day 1997. The Switcheroo was masterminded by comic strip creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott, creators of the Baby Blues daily newspaper comic strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calculator (character)</span> Fictional supervillain

Calculator is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Originally introduced as an enemy of the Atom, the character was later redeveloped in the 2000s as a master information broker, hacker, and tactical supervisor to other supervillains, and foil to Batman's partner Oracle.

<i>Piranha Club</i> Comic strip

Piranha Club is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bud Grace. It was originally called Ernie, but the title was changed in 1998. The club is meant as a parody on Lions Club International, and the strip made its debut in February 1988. In 1989, the Swedish Academy of Comic Art awarded Bud Grace with the Adamson Statuette. Grace received the 1993 National Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Comic Strip Award for his work on the strip.

<i>Full English</i> (TV series) British TV series or program

Full English is an adult animated sitcom created by Jack Williams, Harry Williams and Alex Scarfe for Channel 4. The programme was produced by Two Brothers Pictures. It parodies and satirises various popular entertainment personalities in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog</span> DC Comics characters

Wendy Harris, Marvin White and Wonder Dog are fictional characters from the 1973 American animated TV series Super Friends, based on the famous superheroes published by DC Comics. The series featured a lineup of DC's most popular characters, including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but Hanna-Barbera, the show's producers, wanted to include young sidekick characters that the children in the audience could identify with. This led to the creation of Wendy, Marvin and their hero pet Wonder Dog, who appeared alongside their more famous friends. Because of the success of the Super Friends cartoon, a Super Friends comic book was also created, in which the trio made their first comics appearance.

<i>Ice Haven</i> 2005 graphic novel

Ice Haven is a 2005 graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. The book's contents were originally published as the comic book Eightball #22 and were subsequently reformatted to make the hardcover Ice Haven book.

<i>Girly</i> Webcomic by Jackie Lesnick

Girly is a webcomic created by Jackie Lesnick which follows the romantic relationship between two girls named Otra and Winter, as well as other citizens of the city of Cute-Town. It ran from 2003 until 2010.

<i>ZooPhobia</i> (webcomic) Webcomic

ZooPhobia is an American webcomic originally published in 2012 by Vivienne Medrano, from which she later loosely adapted characters and plotlines for her animated web and television series Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. It follows a young woman named Cameron who travels to an interspecies sanctuary named Safe Haven.

References

  1. ↑ Holbrook, Bill  ( w ,  a ).On the Fastrack.May 22, 2021, King Features Syndicate .
  2. ↑ Bill Holbrook (2002-02-25). "On the Fastrack". Official website. Retrieved 2014-11-29
  3. ↑ Spore Sample
  4. ↑ "On The Fastrack". www.comicskingdom.com. Retrieved Mar 4, 2020.
  5. ↑ Bill Holbrook (2013-11-05). "On the Fastrack". DailyINK. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
  6. ↑ Curtis, Michael with Joe Staton (2016-08-01). "August 01, 2016". Dick Tracy . Retrieved 2016-08-02.
  7. ↑ Bill Holbrook (2013-10-14). "Dethany Denbrobia". Twitter. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  8. ↑ Holbrook, Bil and Amy Sweeney (September 21, 2019). Office Oracles: Workplace advice from Dethany and Fi (VOD). YouTube.
  9. ↑ Office Oracles official website. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.