I discovered Rupert Bear and his friends at a very early age.
I loved the magical artwork, the colourful characters and the exotic locations.
I preferred the pictures to the narrative, but the stories were still very interesting. I didn't see anything wrong at the time, but some of the early text and pictures are now unacceptable because of the racial stereotyping.
There is a lot of information about Rupert and his creators online, and there are many images from the books and comic strips too. I will just include a few of my favourite characters and pictures here.
This is the Wise Old Goat:
I particularly like the Gooseberry Fool:
This weird twiggy creature is Ragetty the woodland troll:
I owned a few of the annuals with their beautiful covers and endpapers; I wish that I had kept these ones:
It is good to know that Rupert is still going strong and has many fans both old and new.
The 2021 Rupert annual celebrates his 2020 centenary with a birthday cake:
