Rupert the Bear Annual 1979

As a young child i loved Rupert the Bear, well of course why not? I used to get the Rupert annual every year for Christmas, these collected together Rupert stories which had appeared in the newspaper years before. When i got a little older i moved more to the Beano and later 2000AD but my Rupert annuals were not thrown away and i have a good collection of them now which i have fallen in love with again. This is the annual from 1979.

Now, the Rupert stories are typical of the style of British comic stories from the mid-20th century, there arn't any speech bubbles for dialogue or inline boxes driving the narrative but a text box below the images. So, it is more like a children's story with accompanying illustrations.

The stories are of course a delight with the air of a fairy tale. Rupert stories are a mixture of the innocent and the surreal. Rupert, himself, is an anthropomorphic bear who wears clothes, a red jumper and yellow trousers with a yellow scarf in winter. The other characters are a mixture of other animals in clothes, a few humans including wizards and mages but also elves and pixies and other enchanted folk!

The book starts with Rupert and the Penguins where Rupert following a mysterious pipe leads him into an adventure where he must find some suitable presents for the King of the Penguins! The other stories have the same whimsical and nostalgic feel. It really is great.