Finieous Fingers | |
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Author(s) | J. D. Webster |
Publisher(s) | Dragon |
Genre(s) | Comedy, fantasy |
Finieous Fingers (often misspelled Fineous even in Dragon magazine's own FAQ) was among the earliest comics that appeared in Dragon magazine.
Finieous Fingers, the title character and self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Thief", was a good-natured thief who was pestered by halflings (hobbits) and evil magic-users. He was generally found in the company of his two men-at-arms, Fred and Charly. The full-page comic was created by J. D. Webster, who was its sole author and illustrator.
The comic's appearances were sporadic due to Webster's commitments as an A-7 pilot in the U.S. Navy. In The Dragon it appeared in issues 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 through 22, 25 through 28, 30, 33, 35, 38 through 41, 43, 45, 49 through 51, 53, and 54 (October 1981). Webster then moved it to Adventure Gaming magazine, a publication that folded the following year. Finieous was next spotted in The Space Gamer and its sister publication Fantasy Gamer in 1984, but again this only lasted about a year. In the 1990s, Finieous Fingers was resurrected for a time in the pages of Shadis magazine, this time drawn by Jason Holmgren.
Author J. D. Webster is a late '70's graduate of Auburn NROTC and a former Navy pilot. Webster is currently flying for Northwest airlines and is living in Michigan with his wife and daughter. Several of his Fineious Fingers characters were modeled after friends who he dungeon mastered for: BoredFlak was based on Everett "Rett" Burge a Civil Engineer living in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Ozyamadas was based on Grant Castlebury who now works in the Texas aerospace industry. The title character was based on close personal friend Scott Mills, who currently delivers mail in the Birmingham area.
A compilation, The Finieous Treasury, was published by TSR in 1981. A series of miniature figures based on the comic was produced by Thunderbolt Mountain in 1982 and made its debut at the 1982 Origins in Baltimore. 10 gold plated sets were created at that time.