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rupert
 1937 thanks to The Solipsistic Gazete Rupert appeared (and still appears) every day in the British newspaper "The Daily Express". It must be one of the longest running children's cartoons in a newspaper anywhere in the world. In the 1930s there was a vogue for children's cartoons in British newspapers. Teddy Tail appeared in the Daily Mail and "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" in the Daily Mirror. The Express decided that they should have their own cartoon and turned to Mary Tourtel, who was the wife of one of their sub-editors. She invented the little bear, Rupert, devising the stories and drawing the illustrations herself.
The first Rupert cartoon appeared on 8th, November, 1920. Two drawings appeared each day, with a short text of story beneath them. Mary Toutel continued to draw Rupert until 1935, when her eyesight began to fail. Casting round for someone to take over, The Express asked an artist and magazine illustrator named Alfred Bestall to fill in for six weeks. So Alfred Bestall took over, but the six weeks extended for thirty years until he retired in 1965 and other artists took over. The cartoon continues in the Daily Express to this day. |