Rupert Bear | |
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Logo for Rupert Bear |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Daily Express |
Publication date | 1920– |
Main character(s) | Rupert |
Creative team | |
Writer(s) | Mary Tourtel (1920–35) Alfred Bestall (1935–74) Freddie Chaplain (1965–78) James Henderson (1978–1990) Ian Robinson (1990–2002) Stuart Trotter (2008–) |
Artist(s) | Mary Tourtel (1920–35) Alfred Bestall (1935–74) Alex Cubie (1975–77) John Harrold (1978–2007) Stuart Trotter (2008–) |
Rupert Bear is a children's comic strip character, who features in a series of books based around his adventures. The character was created by the English artist Mary Tourtel and first appeared in the Daily Express on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. Since then, he has become significant to children's culture in the United Kingdom. In 1935, 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 successful in the field of children's literature and worked on Rupert stories and artwork into his 90s. Since then, various other artists and writers have continued the series, which still runs to this day.
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Rupert is a white bear who lives with his parents in a house in Nutwood. He is drawn wearing a red jumper and bright yellow checked trousers, with matching yellow scarf.
Most of the other characters in the series are anthropomorphic animals (animals with humanoid forms). They are all scaled to be about the same size as Rupert, regardless of species. There are also a few human characters in the stories.
Rupert's animal friends are usually referred to as his "chums" or "pals". Aside from his best friend Bill Badger, some of the most enduring pals include an elephant (Edward Trunk), a mouse (Willie), Pong-Ping the Pekingese, Algy Pug (who actually pre-dates Rupert[1]), Podgy Pig, and Ming the dragon. The kindly Wise Old Goat also lives in Nutwood, and helps Rupert in some of his adventures.
One of the most unusual and evocative characters is Raggety, a woodland troll-creature made from twigs, who is often very grumpy and annoying. In the recent TV series, Raggety has been transformed into a friendly elf with broken English.
There are also a few human characters in the stories, such as the Professor (who lives in a castle with his servant), Tiger Lily (a Chinese girl), her father, Bingo, and several less frequently occurring characters such as Sailor Sam, Captain Binnacle and Rollo, the Gypsy boy. There is also a reoccurring Merboy.
The series often features fantastic and magical adventures in faraway lands. He usually sets out on a small errand for his mother or to visit a friend and ends up in fantastic adventures. Sometimes, one of The Professor's inventions open the door for one of Rupert's adventures. The comic strip was, and still is, published daily in the newspaper, with many of these stories later being printed in books, and every year since 1936 a Rupert annual has also been released. The success of the Rupert series has led to the creation of several television series based on the character. It also has a large fan following, with such groups as The Followers of Rupert.
Unlike most modern comic strips, Rupert Bear has always been produced in the original form of strip with illustrations accompanying text, as opposed to text being incorporated into the art through the use of speech bubbles, etc.
Bestall developed the classic Rupert story format, whereby the story is told in picture form (generally two panels each day in the newspaper and four panels to a page in the annuals), in simple page-headers, in simple two-line-per-image verse and then as running prose at the foot. Rupert Annuals can therefore be "read" on four levels. He also established the shape and form of the Rupert stories themselves. Each story begins in Nutwood (an idyllic English village), takes Rupert to exotic places such as King Frost's Castle, the kingdom of the birds, underground or to the bottom of the sea, then back to Nutwood, where all is safe and well and where his parents seem perfectly sanguine about his adventures.
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".[2] 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".[3]
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.
Every year since 1936, a Rupert Bear annual has been released, even during the years of World War II, during a paper shortage.
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All of these books were written and illustrated by Mary Tourtel and originally published from 1928–1936, by Sampson Low. There were 46 books in the original series.
Some of the titles were later published for the 'Woolworths' retail chain, with only 18 of the original titles. However, the titles and numbers for this series did not relate to the earlier published series.[4]
Brainwaves Limited of Basingstoke, Hampshire, produced a series of Rupert storybooks in 1991 (no author or artist credited):
In addition, they published other Rupert series:
Rupert first appeared on television in an ITC series produced for the ITV network that ran for over 100 ten-minute episodes. The characters were all puppets, although the opening sequence featured a toy Rupert bear sitting in a live-action child's bedroom. Rupert's friends and flying chariot appeared straight from the Daily Express pages, although he was joined by some new friends including a sprite called Willy Wisp.
One of the most memorable elements of the series was the catchy theme song, written by Len Beadle (aka Frank Weston) and Ron Roker, sung by Jackie Lee, which reached number 14 in the UK charts in 1971. The song included the erroneous lyric "Rupert the Bear", even though Rupert has never had the definite article in his name.
A short film directed by Geoff Dunbar based on ideas/music/songs by Sir Paul McCartney was made in 1985, titled "Rupert and the Frog Song." It follows Rupert as he explores the country one night and finds a special gathering of frogs. The film contains a song titled "We All Stand Together," written by McCartney and arranged by the Beatles' producer George Martin. The band Wings performs with McCartney.
Rupert returned to television in 1985 to the BBC, in the form of 36 short five-minute stories [1]. These were cartoons, but were not animated; instead each episode consisted of a series of still illustrations and narration. The sole narrator was Ray Brooks [2], and the dialogue rhymed. The short title music is credited to Brave New World. A selection of the episodes have been released on a number of VHS videos, no official DVD releases are so far available as at 2011.
In 1991, Rupert Bear got his own 2D cartoon animated television series, with 39 episodes produced by Nelvana (Canada), Ellipse (France) and Scottish TV, and with another 26 episodes by Nelvana alone to bring the total to 65. The show greatly followed the style and tone Bestall established in the Rupert newspaper series, with many of the stories being almost direct adaptations of his or others' panel stories from the Daily Express.
It was broadcast in syndication on YTV in Canada. In the United States the show first aired on Nickelodeon before moving to CBS [3]; repeats of the series came to qubo's digital service in January 2007. The show was broadcast in the UK on CITV. In Australia, the show was broadcast on the ABC and on TV 2 in New Zealand as part of the Jason Gunn Show. The series has been re-aired in the UK on the satellite and cable channel Tiny Pop. As of 2009 the show also airs daily on Qubochannel, although only the latter 26 episodes are currently being shown.
In 2006 a new Rupert Bear CGI-animated television series was produced, skewing almost entirely towards small children. Notable changes to the characters are that Rupert wears trainers and his fur has a slight tan; Pong Ping has become a girl who uses magic and had his name reversed; Raggety, who rarely appeared before, became a friendly tree elf; Ming became a baby dragon and Ping Pong's pet; Edward no longer has tusks, his trunk has been straightened and he wears an orange T-Shirt and brown shorts; and one of the fox twins (Ferdie) has been changed into a girl named Freda. There are new characters like Miranda the mermaid and characters like Podgy Pig, his self-obsessed sister Rosalie and the timid Willie Mouse make no appearances.
Rupert Bear, Follow The Magic ... was broadcast on Five from 8 November to 7 December 2006. Thirteen ten-minute episodes were broadcast and subsequently repeated.
The British 1980s video games publisher, Quicksilva adapted Rupert Bear for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum 8-bit consoles. This company published two game instalments, the 1985 Rupert and the Toymaker's Party and the 1986 Rupert and The Ice Castle.
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