Mary Tourtel was created in 1920, at a time when the "Express" was in competition with "The Daily Mail" and its then popular comic strip "Teddy Tail", as well as the strip "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" in "The Daily Mirror". The then news editor of the "Express", Herbert Tourtel, was approached with the task of producing a new comic strip to rival those of the "Mail" and "Mirror" and immediately thought of his wife Mary, already an established author and artist. Rupert Bear was the result and was first published as a nameless character in a strip titled "Little Lost Bear" on
The Adventures of Rupert Bear black-and-white 16mm film. The remaining episodes were thought to be missing. On 21 April 2017, it was announced by Network Distributing that all 156 episodes had been found on their original film elements, and were to be released on DVD in three volumes, the first comprising the first 52 episodes. In April 2017, Network Distributing announced it would be releasing the first 52 episodes from the first two series on DVD (Region 2, PAL format). http://networkonair.com/exclusives/2626-adventures-of-rupert-bear-the-volume-1 The set was made available only directly through Network's site. A second volume containing the 52 episodes from series 3 was released soon afterward,