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
Rupert Bear 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 called "Rupert and the Diamond Leaf", in which he visits "Coon Island", whose inhabitants are little "Coons". 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". The first appearance was in the 1946 soft cover summer special "Rupert on Coon Island". Rupert appeared in Paul McCartney's 1984 music video "We All Stand Together"; McCartney also made an animated