Gyro appears in F&SF

[Tryg Helseth]

In the February 2000 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine appears a short story Paul Di Filippo titled, "Stink Lines."  

The story starts in 2001 when, in honor of Carl Barks 100th birthday, Disney Corporation buys up the town of Los Gatos California and renames it "Duckburg."  The town is remodeled to resemble Barks Duckburg complete with walk-around role-playing characters.

The hero of the story is a young resident of the new Duckburg named Gary Greer-Lish.  His school mates waste no time in christening him as Gyro Gearloose.  He decides to adopt the name when Ginger Barks (a distant relative of Carl) tells him the name is "cool." 

Through the years Gary takes on more the personality of Gyro and becomes an eccentric inventor.  In the hopes of impressing his secret love, Ginger, he invents a "utility fog" consisting of nano-machines that can simulate dialog balloons and visual devices depicting emotions, odors, etc.

I'll stop there so as not to spoil the story for anyone who cares to read it, but I have to admit it was quite a surprise to see a story based on Barks work in this publication--especially one starring Gyro Gearloose.  I have to wonder what percentage of the readers would be at all familiar with Barks, and much less Gyro.  Maybe more than we think?

Tryg