Fenton is NOT an idiot!

Danny Fenton in Danny Phantom? Fenton Fusco in Kevin & Kell? I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to be more specific.

Say, your name wouldn't happen to be Fenton, would it?

Quack, Don

Sorry. I'm new to this forum, and for some reason, everything except the thread's title disappeared. I hope it works better this time.

I meant Fenton Crackshell on "Duck Tales". I really like this site, Don, except that you call him an idiot in the article for "Duck Tales".

I don't think that was a function of you being new to the Forum. It seems to have happened on another topic here that day. I thought you were just using that time-honored but sometimes less-than-communicative technique of putting the message in the header and leaving the body blank.

Okay, got it. It's Fenton Crackshell who isn't an idiot. But it's been too many years since I saw DuckTales for me to judge whether or not that is actually the case. I'll have to take another look. I hope to lay hands on a copy soon, but until I do, I'll have to go with my earlier evaluation, since I was a lot closer to it then.

Meanwhile, does anyone else have anything to say on the subject that might sway me?

Quack, Don

Well, I can say more.

It's not fair to call Fenton "an idiot" or say things like "[the Gizmoduck suit] didn't make him any smarter". I suspected that you were rather unfamiliar with Fenton, since you could write like that about him, so let me tell you a little about him.

"Duck Tales" had a lot of characters, which no one can say were the brightest bulbs in the box. Launchpad McQuack and some of the Beagle boys come to mind. But surely Fenton doesn't fit into that cathegory. He didn't have much good luck. He messed up a lot of times. He wasn't with any "in crowd", even though Scrooge and the nephews soon started caring about him. He could get carried away with things. He was a geek or a dweeb or a dork. But he wasn't stupid. There are even times, when he was smart. There are two times, when he saves the day without his Gizmoduck suit.

You make good points, but I'm still going to have to check for myself when I'm able.

Meanwhile, I'd like to know if this is a widespread attitude, which is why I asked if anyone else has anything to say on the subject. Your objection is noted. Anyone else?

It's entirely possible I've been unfair to him. In the interest of accuracy, I'll evaluate that as soon as I can, and make corrections if appropriate. Meanwhile, tho, Fenton is merely a fictional character. While characters can have partisans, who can sometimes have strong feelings on the subject -- and it's obvious that this character has at least one -- it doesn't weigh on my conscience like being unfair to a human being would.

Quack, Don

I'll agree with Furienna. Fenton Crackshell was often rather hapless and now and then rather egotistical, but nevertheless self-conscious enough to recognize tough situations and lament injustices—and to wish openly to better the life of himself and his trailer park mom. He frequently schemed and dreamed in a manner befitting someone who had high hopes and aspirations, expressed in a manner that showed general intelligence. Fenton in many ways resembled the comics version of Donald sans temper; had he not had the Gizmoduck schtick, the similarity might be too close.

When I think "idiot," I think of Beaky Buzzard, blundering sleepily through life and barely even recognizing a crisis until it's too late.

I might rephrase the Fenton description to read "...Fenton Crackshell, an earnest but hapless accountant. Through an improbable series of misfortunes, Fenton became a superhero, Gizmoduck, but unfortunately, only became luckier in fits and starts."

If you like this, Don, feel free to rip it off. I, David Gerstein, do solemnly surrender all right and financial stake in the foregoing sentences and blah-blah-blah-boodleoodleoodleoodle-SOLD-to-an-American.

Well, I guess that resolves the question, and I'll certainly be making some changes shortly. But I'll do the wording myself, David.

I take it, by the way, you won't be maintaining your Secret Identity here. Not that you ever made much of a secret of it (I, for one, spotted it years ago), but sometimes people aren't entirely comfortable letting their faces hang out on message boards. But I'll still mostly call you "Ramapith" here.

But while the mask is off, let me note for the benefit of others that David was my editor at Egmont during the year or so he lived in Denmark, and is now my editor when I work at Gemstone (mostly writing English-language dialog for European Disney stories, tho I did get to write the Bucky Bug 75th anniversary story from scratch a couple of years ago). His knowledge of comics and cartoons, especially in the area of Disney, is staggering. I'll always accept his corrections without question.

But as you know from many phone conversations (back to you, David), I almost always prefer my own prose to that of anyone else, even you, on my work. Not that I don't have a lot of respect for you as an editor, but I've got this massive ego -- another thing you certainly know by now.

But thanks for settling this question. With you chiming in, I don't have to dig up and watch a bunch of DuckTales episodes to make sure.

Quack, Don

P.S.
When you mentioned a certain character "blundering sleepily through life and barely even recognizing a crisis until it's too late", I thought you were talking about a certain politician who gets in the news a lot, until I noticed it was about Beaky Buzzard.

Come to think of it, that applies to a lot of politicians, especially these days, with the crises coming thick and fast. I hope they wake up before the country completely falls over the edge.

Quack, Don

SPLAT! (That was it falling over the edge.)

Re: "the year or so [I] lived in Denmark"... yoicks, Don! I lived there for a whopping 6 1/2 years, from fall 1997 until early 2004—and was formally your editor from late 1999 ("Mother Hen Mickey") until summer 2004.
Byron also gave me nine of your scripts to edit that began with him before that, so you (and some of our readers here!) can see my meddling influence even in stuff you wrote before we were working one-on-one.

"Year or so?" YEAR? I'm so stunned I'd have to say "gawrsh"... except that under duress, I've now quashed and squashed and washed out "gawrsh for "gosh."

Time sure flies when you're having fun -- and it was fun working with you at Egmont. (And it's fun at Gemstone, too, despite how little work you're able to give me.)

This is probably an age-related defense mechanism. Past situations get shorter in my memory, because if they lasted as long as they actually did, then I must be over -- gack! I can feel the icy fingers closing around my neck.

And you topped the uncomfortable reminder off by quoting one of my most embarrassing lines of dialog, which I wrote only because when you do a story titled "My Fair Goofy", you've got to have a line parodying "The Rain in Spain" from the Broadway version of the original story. (In my defense, I'll point out that it's practically impossible to duplicate the brilliance of that line, which contains four rhymes in its ten syllables, plus a fifth that assonates with them, and taken together is a single perfect line of iambic pentameter. Even coming up with my lame attempt was a chore.)

Really fun 7-page story, tho. In the one-page ballroom scene, Goofy, having been instructed to discuss only the weather and people's wellbeing, dances with the analog of the Zoltan Carpathian character, who confesses she's intensely curious about him, and he replies, "I'm very well, thank you. And yourself?"

Quack, Don