Fethry in the 1960s USA

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	Now for a little information on Cousin Fethry.  I first note
him appearing about 1964 in the U. S., and he's in a lot of Tony
Strobl-drawn stories from the period.  Around WDC&S 305 there is a
"Mad Madam Mim" story entitled "Ducky Date," in which Mim, hoping to
get into a nightclub, transforms herself to a voluptuous chanteuse,
and Donald and Fethry vie for her affections (Fethry's role is in that
story not so far removed from Gladstone's).

	In all of these stories, Fethry talks in "beatnik" dialogue:
"The trouble with you, Don, is you aren't *cool* enough, man!"
(That's just my own rendition, not a quote from somewhere)  I remember
seeing him often enough as a younger child (in the late 1970s) that I
not only recognized him as an ongoing character but, due to his
dialect, grew to resent his presence strongly.

	It would be interesting to see the story in WDC&S 509 and see
if Fethry speaks in hipper-than-thou lingo.  I certainly hope not.

	I think the major reason that Fethry died out here is that he
was linked to a culture -- 1960s hippies -- which went out of style,
and the type of story done for the foreign market -- in which he was
an interesting character, not a stereotype -- was never seen here.

	Oh yes, in Germany:  Cousin Fethry = Vetter Dussel

	Maybe I can offer to dialogue an Italian story with Fethry for
Gladstone to use.  I wouldn't use the beatnik speech however.

	So someone on the list has WDC&S 509... does anyone you know
have #510?  That, Whitman's last issue, contained an Egmont Daniel
Branca story!  Which Gladstone later did their own version of and got
chewed out for by some astute readers who saw the earlier version.
"We didn't realize," they said, "that it was one of the TWO Danish
stories Whitman published shortly before giving up on comics..."  TWO?
What's the other one?  Sounds like it's one Gladstone never used.

	That's all, folks.


	David Gerstein

	(POOF!)
	"The name's *Mimsy*, Donald!  Why don't you drop over
sometime?  Hee!  Hee!  Hee!"
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>