Defending Fethry...

Luca Boschi cnotw at zen.it
Wed Sep 5 11:33:11 CEST 2001


Hi, Lars and all!

You're righ, when you say...

> And actually Fethry has appeared in a number of American comics. Most
> obviously Donald Duck #105 and #106, but he was pretty much out of
> character in those stories, so there's no point in using those as
> reference.

Yes. He was drawn by Tony Strobl, probably with Vic Lockman's plots. Some
years ago we discussed that probably, after Hubbard created Fethry's model,
the character was assigned to two different teams, one for the Western and
the second for stories in the Studio Program (which come later, when a doumb
sidekick like Fethry, probably requested by Mr. Sherman, felt down in the
Western comic books). So, the *right* version of Fethry, IMHO, is only the
one by  Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard.

> Fethry isn't an idiot. In fact, when in character he should be as smart
> as Barks' Donald and should have the manipulative powers of Scrooge. He
> *is* an eccentric, however - more interested in expanding his mind and
> improving others' lives than making money or looking out for himself (as
> Scrooge and Donald do). The fact that his actions frequently lead to
> chaos comes from his inability to connect with reality. This doesn't
> make him an idiot, it makes him a wanna-be humanitarian with blinders to
> the real world.

Correct! Even if (as usual) many, many story men misundestood the original
"beatnik" mind of the character, very fonded in his creation's years.
>
Indeed, there is a third story with Fethry printed in USA, quite recently.
The butchered reprint of the Cavazzano-Pezzin's italian story P E IL
CROCCANTE AL DIAMANTE, where Fethry is introduced as a cousin from Europe
(!). GULP!

Luca




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