Does anyone remember Rupert the Bear?
Rupert Bear is a cartoon character created by the English artist Mary Tourtel and who first appeared in the Daily Express on November 8, 1920. Rupert’s initial purpose was to grab sales from the Daily Mail and Mirror. He has endured and become far more significant to children’s culture than a simple ratings-grabber. In the 1930s, the mantle of Rupert artist and storyteller was taken over by Alfred Bestall, who was previously an illustrator for Punch and other glossy magazines. Bestall proved to be a genius in the field of children’s literature and worked on Rupert stories and artwork into his 90s. He developed the classic Rupert story format, whereby the story is told in picture form (generally 4/page), in simple page-headers (e.g. “Rupert goes to School”), in simple two-line-per-image verse and then as running prose at the foot. Rupert Annuals can therefore be “read” on 4 different levels. He also established the shape and form of the Rupert stories themselves. Each story begins in Nu
