Rupert Bear Rupert Bear Rupert Bear is a children's comic strip character created by the English artist Mary Tourtel and first appearing in the "Daily Express" newspaper on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival "Daily Mail" and "Daily Mirror". 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. More recently, various other artists and writers have continued
Rupert Bear 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 (also known as 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 Paul McCartney was made in 1985, titled "Rupert and the Frog Song". It follows Rupert as he explores the country