Rupert Bear - History

History

Rupert's unspectacular début was in a single panel, the first of 36 episodes of the story "Little Lost Bear" written and drawn by Tourtel.

Bestall expanded the stories and plots of Rupert; and in addition to precise and detailed drawings for the Daily Express panels he also created beautifully crafted illustrations in the Rupert Annuals. Bestall drew the Rupert stories for the Daily Express until 1965; and continued to illustrate the covers for the annuals until his 1973 retirement. Much of the landscape in Rupert is inspired by the Snowdonia landscape of North Wales, the Sussex Weald and East Devon. The successor to Bestall was Alex Cubie. Cubie created Rupert annual artwork between 1974 and 1977. His images are recognisable from the thicker black outlines around the characters and the use of more vibrant colours than Bestall employed. A Rupert Annual is still produced every year and Rupert appears each day in the Daily Express newspaper. In 1978 his new adventures became illustrated by John Harrold; his drawings in the annual usually coloured by Gina Hart. In 2008 John Harrold was succeeded by Stuart Trotter and a new style of annual (sans serif typeface) with a more modern Rupert to tie-in with the CGI-animation Rupert Bear, Follow the Magic... began.

The Rupert Annual for 1960 contained a story "Rupert and the Diamond Leaf", in which he visits "Coon Island," whose inhabitants are little "Coons". The Coons previously appeared on the cover of The New Rupert: The Daily Express Annual, 1954 and in the interior story "Rupert and the Castaway". The first appearance was in the 1946 soft cover summer special "Rupert on Coon Island".

Rupert appeared in Paul McCartney's 1984 music video "We All Stand Together"; McCartney also made an animated video starring Rupert called Rupert and the Frog Song.

Tourtel's home was in Canterbury in Kent, and the Rupert Bear Museum, part of the Museum of Canterbury, has collections that cover much of the history of Rupert and his Friends, as well as Tourtel and other illustrators. The museum is geared toward families and to those interested in the general history of Rupert.

On 31 October 2005, UK Media Group Entertainment Rights (which was later bought by Boomerang Media) purchased majority interest to the Rupert Bear character from the Daily Express. There are plans for a film, books, Limited Edition Prints and DVDs that will see Rupert joined by new friends in addition to established characters.