Toby Twirl Tourtel, an assistant editor of the "Daily Express". Tourtel devised Rupert Bear shortly after the end of World War I, in 1920, when the "Daily Express" was in competition with "The Daily Mail" and its then popular comic strip “Teddy Tail” (featuring a mouse called “Teddy Tail”), as well as with the comic strip “Pip, Squeak and Wilfred” (respectively, these are the names of a dog, penguin, and rabbit) in the "Daily Mirror". Each panel of Tourtel's comic strip story was accompanied by a narrative in rhymed verse. These are the very first ("Daily Express", 8 November 1920): The title
Rupert Bear video starring Rupert called "Rupert and the Frog Song". The short film, produced by McCartney won the British Academy Award. 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 those interested in the general history of Rupert. On 31 October 2005, UK Media Group Entertainment Rights (which was later bought by Boomerang Media and then DreamWorks Animation) purchased a majority interest in the Rupert