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
Cranbrook Daily Townsman several of its British Columbia papers to Black. At the time, Kendall said Black "wasn't as interested in some titles – Cranbrook, Kimberley, Nelson, and Prince Rupert – but Glacier was only selling the papers as a block." Black did purchase the "Nelson Daily News" and "Prince Rupert Daily News" in 2010, and ended up closing them days later. It already owned competing weeklies in both Nelson and Prince Rupert. Although it also owns a competing weekly in Cranbrook, the "Kootenay Advertiser", Black purchased the "Daily Townsman" and "Daily Bulletin" from Kendall a year later, promising that both the weekly