Fethry Duck

Fethry Duck made his debut on August 2, 1964. Fethry Duck is the slightly mixed-up, extremely eccentric cousin of Donald Duck. Usually this enthusiastic geek works alongside Donald as a reporter for Scrooge McDuck's newspaper. In other stories, Fethry unwittingly annoys others via his peculiar way of seeing the world.

History
The story behind Fethry is a little messy. Originally he was created by the Disney studio by Dick Kinney (writer) and Al Hubbard (artist) for the European market. This makes him an American invention but his first appearance was in the Italian Topolino #453 from 1964. His first appearance in USA was not until 1966 in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #304. Only in the early 2000s was Fethry really accepted into the American comic books, whereas he has always been a fairly popular character in Europe and Brazil.

In the Brazilian comics Fethry was given a secret identity named Morcego Vermelho (The Red Bat), created by Carlos Edgar Herrero (artist) and possibly Ivan Saidenberg (writer). Fethry's stint as Morcego Vermelho ran in Almanaque Disney, Edição Extra and a few other Disney series from 1973 thru 1990. The Morcego Vermelho stories remained a Brazilian phenomenon, but a few stories have made it to Europe, mostly Italy.

The Brazilian comics also provided Fethry with a nephew, Biquinho (Dugan Duck in english translations), and a girlfriend, Gloria, who is also his partner in crime fighting known as Borboleta Purpurea (Purple Butterfly).

Despite having been around for so long and having achieved the popularity that he has, the only reference to any transfer to other media to be found so far, are a few small figurines.

He's Donald Duck's paternal silly cousin, and Gladstone Gander's maternal cousin. He's also to be a grandson of Elvira Coot (Grandma Duck) and Humperdink Duck

Fethry often appears in Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck tales. In his earliest adventures, he supposedly lived in another state (possibly New York or California, and had to visit via airplane or train. However, since 1964, he has resided in an old house definitely in Duckburg. He is also closely associated with the hillbilly Hard Haid Moe who dislikes Fethry very much (though Fethry doesn't seem to understand this), and with Donald's pet cat, Tabby.

Trivia

 * Kinney and Hubbard created this character to be a beatnik (meaning "a person who rejects or avoids conventional behavior") member of the Duck Family.
 * Fethry wears different colors of the same blouse depending on which country the story is published in (ex: in Brazil, his blouse is generally yellow; in the Italian comics, he usually wears a red one; and, in the comic books of Egmont Publishing, the traditional color of his blouse is pink).
 * It is revealed in "The Health Nut" that Fethry wears a stocking cap because he was convinced by a self-help book author that one's head is healthier when it's kept hot.