Rupert Bear Annual Cover 1936
The Frog Chorus by Alfred Bestall
Rupert Bear Annual Cover 1968I particularly loved the Oriental influences (from his early childhood spent growing up in Burma) which mixed with his period depictions of rural Britain at the time created quite an original and exotic backdrop for the stories. He was also President of the British Origami Society for many years and you can often see this feature in his work.
I'm working on some of my own story and character ideas at the moment and I recently produced a personal Christmas card which to my mind makes more than a passing nod (or bow of respect, I should say) to dear old Alfred (he was 93 when he passed away).
click on image for a closer look
The idea started with the rat hanging up some Chinese paper lanterns which made me think of Alfred Bestall's work with Rupert.
As an aside, I often listen to the Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC iPlayer when I'm working and whilst I was scribbling away on this illustration just before Christmas, I heard Mark Radcliffe mention that he had every Rupert Bear Annual since he was born and still gets one every year. He said something along the lines of "sitting down with a new Rupert Bear annual and a box of Maltesers just is Christmas". I think I know exactly what he means.
I emailed them a copy and it was mentioned on air apparently but I managed to miss it. I did get a personal email back from Mark though and he said "Loving the Bestall lanterns" which was nice.
Anyway, where did I leave that box of Maltesers?...
As an aside, I often listen to the Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC iPlayer when I'm working and whilst I was scribbling away on this illustration just before Christmas, I heard Mark Radcliffe mention that he had every Rupert Bear Annual since he was born and still gets one every year. He said something along the lines of "sitting down with a new Rupert Bear annual and a box of Maltesers just is Christmas". I think I know exactly what he means.
I emailed them a copy and it was mentioned on air apparently but I managed to miss it. I did get a personal email back from Mark though and he said "Loving the Bestall lanterns" which was nice.
Anyway, where did I leave that box of Maltesers?...
10 comments:
Great post - evoked similar memories in me
I hadn't thought about Rupert Bear in a long time but had all the annuals as a child too. Great Christmas card as well. By the way it was me that sent you the Gurney pic from but from my wife,s email account for some reason.
Hey Steve...all is now clear! Now I look at that photo again full-size I can see it's you. I thought you were just a 'random' when I got it...sorry 'bout that. Love your sketch blog that Sqz flagged up the other day...fantastic work. I've only been to NYC half a dozen times and my agent there used to be based in Greenich Village but your sketches bring the atmosphere across superbly. Really, really nice work.
Thanks Steve, I though perhaps you hadn't put it together when you finished the E-mail with "kind regards" If ever you are in New York again I'll take you to lunch at the Society of Illustrators, you'd love it, if indeed you haven't been already.
If that's the place just off Lexington Avenue, yes, I have indeed been there but I've not dined there. We were planning on coming over in February but it's not looking so likely now. Hopefully sometime later this year, its long overdue. My stepson and his girlfriend have just come back from NY and I now have a brand new, shiny 'I Love NY' mug gracing my work desk. Will definately look you up next time we're over Steve.
Rupert came into my life aged 4 in 1940 with the first coloured Christmas Annual. I have found one of the magical tales from 1943 I loved with toy Spitfires and Hurricanes in Santa's workshop.
This is the time of year to let all suitable children see the original super colour illustration of the wartime annuals and the best Santa story of all.
The complete Christmas Story of 10 pages with Santa Claus from 1943 Rupert Annual can be viewed at http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3954/rupertbearsanta1.jpg - then just click on 'next page' on each page
Spitfires and Hurricanes? You have found my weak spot. Beautiful things that fly (let's not dwell on what they are built for). Thank you for the link...I will investigate.
Correction. To see the next pages after the first, change the URL by substituting 2jpg for 1jpg and so on up to 10jpg
Unfortunately that method doesn't seem to work for me, I got the first page but when changed to 2.jpeg it just takes me to Image Shack. I think some of the other numbers in the url must be different on the other images.
Who is this person 'Albert' of whom you mention twice?
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