Austin J. Jenkins

Donald and Fethry; Fethry's Raffle (1977)

Synopsis: Fethry wants to sell Donald a raffle ticket, but he isn't interested.

 A Rifa do Peninha (B 760317) | I.N.D.U.C.K.S.

“A Rifa do Peninha” is one of the many MANY early brazilian stories starring the pinnacle of raw unfiltered energy, Fethry Duck, one of Donald’s many relatives. Unlike his other cousin, Gladstone, who’s the antithesis of Donald who, instead of an unlucky job-applying fellow is one who’s so filled with luck and so stuck-up about it that the mere idea of having to own a job is something more private than what’s inside pandora's box, Fethry has the exact same kind of hobby-seeking skills Donald processes. However, Fethry mainly prefers to obtain as many jobs and hobbies as he can, not for the money (though it never hurts to get some kind of paycheck from it) but more for the thrill of it. Tom Kenny voicing his only animated appearance in the Ducktales reboot is as fitting as you can get, as he’s how Spongebob adores his one and only workplace, but this time, he takes that raw dedication to any kind of occupation he can find.

Now why is this an issue for Donald? Because just like all of his other relatives, they really like dragging him into the picture for some reason. Fethry, in this story, is hosting a raffle and wants to get people to get tickets to bet on their winnings, but aside from the only other person he picks (which turns out to be the punchline of the short story) he dashes over to Donald’s house and does EVERYTHING he can to get Donald to buy at least one of them. In typical Brazilian fashion, as you'll soon see over time, it’s set more less like an epic Dell Four Color story, and more like cleaned up storyboards for a late 40s slapstick cartoon. There’s alot more action around Fethry getting kicked out and Donald hustling to get him off of him and later his TV.

As for the actual artwork, while it’s not like the previous Brazilian mickey story where it feels more like a cleaned-up S-code story, alot of these early Donald and Fethry stories have nowhere similar looking to the original Fethry stories Al Hubbard did. Those were ultra sketchy and rough looking while these Brazilian stories have more polish and solid posing.

Not sure how others would feel, but I honestly adore how much of a dick Fethry's being here. "C'mon Don, be a good sport and get yourself a ticket. You know I ain't gonna move if you don't.."

You know, Fethry, considering how much you really like tracking down Donald whenever he so much as breathes, You REALLY should've known that was gonna happen. Or at the really least, knew that letting Gladstone bet was game over automatically.