I like Fethry, his best stories are for sure the original Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard stories. But in newer stories, we see less of his crazy side. In stories where he works with Donald and Scrooge on the newspaper, it's not the same crazy as in Kinney stories.
Anybody has some good stories with Fethry faithful to the Kinney/Hubbard spirit?
I really ONLY like the Kinney/Hubbard Fethry stories. And I am currently writing and storyboard drawing 2 stories using Fethry, as both my Egmont and Sanoma editors have advised me that they have a LOT of long stories already accepted for the next several months, and only are looking for short stories(2-6 pages) mainly featuring the secondary characters. Donald/Fethry stories fit into that description. I use Fethry as I see that Kinney mainly used him, as a pest, who pesters Donald to the point of making him explode. Fethry does this by being a "cultist", who constantly latches onto "the new 'in' thing" (popular trend in personal activity and personal improvement), and runs around telling everyone that he or she needs to do that, too. My two Donald/Fethry stories have the following basic plots:
(1) Donald is basically superstitious, and believes that people can have bad luck that comes from having been cursed. Fethry comes to warn Donald about the danger of a specific curse, and tries to educate him on how to avoid that danger (e.g. having the curse befall him). Disasters happen because of coincidences, or are caused by Fethry's meddling. Donald, of course, thinks it's all because of the curse.
(2) Fethry is running around Duckburg warning everybody that Space Aliens are soon to come to Earth. Donald and his nephews see him doing that, and try to stop him because he'll only bring embarrassment and ridicule upon himself. Gladstone watches out of curiosity, but doesn't worry, as he thinks Fethry is a "crackpot", and even if it were true, his luck would protect him. Naturally Fethry doesn't listen to reason, and drags Donald into a series of disastrous events, and Donald ends up wishing he'd never tried to help. What I think is the most interesting aspect of this story is that it pits Gladstone Gander's supernatural luck against Fethry's supernatural ability for bringing disasters and ruining people's days. Can even Gladstone's unbeatable luck stop Fethry from ruining Donald's life?
That's very nice! I look forward to that. Will they also be available in english or french?
There's no guarantee that I can get even one of them published by EITHER Sanoma Uitgevers OR Egmont, given that Fethry is an extremely seldom-used character these days for both companies. I think that Sanoma hasn't printed a story using him in over 5 years, and Egmont has only had a couple stories using him (one by Lars Jensen-the resurrector of seldom-used characters from long ago) over the past 5 years.
I just hope that because my middle-sized stories using a secondary character fills the requirement for what is wanted most now, and they'll be funny enough, that The Editors will be a little more likely than normal to accept them.
I think that Kinney's cultist, pestering Fethry is a very funny character, especially when unconsciously making it his job to ruin the fragile, and easily disgusted life of Donald. And, adding Gladstone's super luck (which also terrorize's Donald) into the mix, can only make things even more zany and interesting.
That's very nice! I look forward to that. Will they also be available in english or french?
As there is no guarantee that these Fethry stories will be bought by either Sanoma OR Egmont, there is no way to know. IF they are bought and published by either, they could possibly end up published in English in The USA by IDW, or in India by India's Egmont affiliate publisher. But, India is a longshot, because they publish not so many pages, and mainly stories with very simple plots. IDW is also not very likely, as they have a giant volume of stories over the entire history of Disney Comics from which to choose. And so, the stories they choose are ALL of EXTREMELY high quality. I've had only one 10-page story and one 6-page story, and 3 or 4 one-page gags printed in USA ( from among Gladstone, Gemstone, Disney, Boom! and IDW), and I've had 114 stories accepted from 1985 through the present). So I wouldn't count on it.
As far as I understand, currently, The French print more Egmont stories than those from Dutch Sanoma. So, if I can sell one or both of these 2 Fethry stories to Egmont, that will be the best chance that they'll appear in a French publication. I think I've had about 25 French printings.
The countries that print more of my stories are The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
I talked about it before, but in this case, I would like to mention again Paperino e la cotta di Paperoga, a cute story where Fethry falls in love with Donald's robot maid, Margherita. He is totally oblivious to her robotic nature and their "relationship" is actually quite funny and endearing.
Fethry: "I want to ask you on a date! Tell me you accept with pleasure!" Margherita: "I accept with pleasure!"
Last Edit: Aug 3, 2017 14:01:05 GMT by Orora: WRONG link, wak!!
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Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Aug 2, 2017 19:07:00 GMT
I remember reading, years ago, a story where Fethry falls in love with a salesgirl, but is too shy to approach the object of his affection, so he has Donald disguise himself as Fethry. Donald ends up in an altercation with the girl's boyfriend (a literal gorilla, a good example of an atypical anthropomorphism), only to find out that he had mistaken whom Fethry was really in love with. The salesgirl looks a lot like the robot maid in the post above, which is what spurred my memory. Does anyone know which story this is?
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Aug 2, 2017 19:39:28 GMT
Faccini is clearly the modern great master of (the Italian) Fethry since 20 years, hard to disagree. In particular I appreciate his mute stories.
A very important story, which analyzes the psychology of (the Italian) Fethry and his condition as a loveless weirdo, is Fethry hero of the space by writer Roberto Gagnor (you may know him for his Dalì story recently published in WDCS) and artist Claudio Sciarrone (best known for PKNA). The story develops as a weird parody of Star Wars, but then it revels a very touching ending. Here too there is a love involved.
I would mention also a few good ones by writer Giorgio Pezzin and artist Giorgio Cavazzano from the 70's. (Just make an advanced search on the inducks to get the stories by these two authors from 1974 to 1979 featuring Fethry, there are quite a few.) Actually these stories are a bit overrated, in my view, since I find them a bit childish. Nevertheless, they are funny enough. Also, they are historically important: firstly, because they basically created the "Italian" Fethry, more naive than the Kinney's version; secondly, from an artistic perspective, because they come from the period when Cavazzano started to draw in a dynamic Franco-Belgian style.
The only Fethry stories I've sought out in other countries' comics are the Kinney stories. So basically all I've read are Kinney stories and the TNT stories, which are not favorites of mine. In my mind, Fethry exists so that Tabby might make sarcastic comments about him. It's really Tabby I love, in the Kinney/Hubbard stories.
But I'd be interested to get some recommendations of outstanding Fethry stories by others. Any particular stories by Faccini I should start with? Can you name a couple of the mute stories, Monkey_F?
I'm a Faccini enthusiast and I absolutely love his version of Fethry. Paperoga e la metamorfosi arborea is probably my favorite. I see that only two of his Fethry stories made it to the US so far, this awesome one-pager and the mute story that jumbojr recommended in his post above. I would also recommend these two: Tutti al mare and Paperoga e i calzoni exxXxxtralarge (both mute). Also worthy of attention is "Re di pasticci", Faccini's series of Fethry one-pagers that still goes on since 1999. From the Pezzin/Cavazano stories mentioned by Monkey_Feyerabend I would most certainly recommend the classic "Paperoga e il peso della gloria". Also, I must mention Paperoga e la renna in panne, a Christmas story by Alberto Savini and Fabio Celoni. And since the thread's title is "Good Fethry stories other than Kinney/Hubbard", Cat School (Kinney/Strobl) technically fits the bill.
The Egmont-produced stories under David Gerstein's editorship intentionally went for the Kinney-conception of the character, since most of the Italian and Brazilian stories miscast him six ways to Sunday. Quite a few of the Egmont stories rank as classics, check the back issues from the Gemstone days.
I also think "Siege of Nothing Atoll" is one of the greats, but perhaps I'm a little biased. (And I tried to get him to read like his Kinney self!)