More nostalgia - Rupert Bear Annuals of the 1950s

[stewamax]

When I was a child in the early 1950s, one of my Rupert Annuals had endpapers with an illustration of Santa Claus flying through the darkened sky in his sleigh. I am reminded of this with a whoosh of nostalgia as Xmas approaches.
Any idea which year this Annual was please?

[panamagold]

Any idea which year this Annual was please?

Check here and click on the albums and the endpapers fully open. http://rupertbear.co.uk/rupert-annuals_PC5.html

panamagold

[bungeejumper]

Am I the only one who used to find Rupert Bear a bit creepy? All those weird Edwardian-type characters who seemed to date back to Gilbert & Sullivan, which was even older, or course. Vicars and scoutmasters and wizards and eccentric professors and Chinese princesses. Some of them seemed well dodgy, even for the mid-fifties - which we might remember was a time when Noddy was being mugged and stripped naked in the woods by a bunch of golliwogs....

My wife, who is just a couple of years older than me, remembers Rupert with much more fondness and less scepticism, and she still enjoys the rhyming couplets and the fantasy. Personally, at that age I was more interested in Desperate Dan and the Bash Street Kids.

For a better take on village/suburban life, I much preferred Just William. Equally timeless, but with a much sharper edge. Now what an annual that would have been!

BJ

[stevensfo]

Am I the only one who used to find Rupert Bear a bit creepy? All those weird Edwardian-type characters who seemed to date back to Gilbert & Sullivan, which was even older, or course. Vicars and scoutmasters and wizards and eccentric professors and Chinese princesses.

I was born in the 60s and loved Rupert Bear, most of which were read when staying with my Grandparents and my Aunts. Yes, I remember the weird characters. That's what made it so interesting. But then again, I was probably the only boy who didn't care for Grange Hill when it first appeared on TV. I'd much rather be in another land than reminded of where I'd just spent the day!

Some of them seemed well dodgy, even for the mid-fifties - which we might remember was a time when Noddy was being mugged and stripped naked in the woods by a bunch of golliwogs....

Probably to make the Private Boarding School kids feel more at home?


Steve

[Slarti]

Am I the only one who used to find Rupert Bear a bit creepy?

Well not creepy, but mind numbingly boring.

My parents said I would read anything, cereal box, sauce bottle, sports pages, anything, but Rupert sent me in search of something else. Almost anything else, cause it would be less boring.

Slarti

[Clitheroekid]

Check here and click on the albums and the endpapers fully open. http://rupertbear.co.uk/rupert-annuals_PC5.html

I didn't mind the Rupert stories, through I seem to remember that under each picture there was a block of text or for those like me with the attention span of a gnat there was an alternative of a rhyming couplet. Needless to say I always read just the rhyming couplets.

I had a look at the 1961 annual and noticed the `Santa's Magic Painting Gift' on the front cover. This brought back another memory of something I'd totally forgotten about. There used to be books / comics with black and white drawings in them, but when you painted water over them with a paintbrush they would miraculously become coloured. They weren't exactly creative, but I used to love doing them.

It also reminded me of a bizarre story regarding the `brown faced Rupert Bear' - start checking out your attic! http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucesters ... 702628.stm

[LadyGagarin]

Am I the only one who used to find Rupert Bear a bit creepy? All those weird Edwardian-type characters who seemed to date back to Gilbert & Sullivan, which was even older, or course. Vicars and scoutmasters and wizards and eccentric professors and Chinese princesses. Some of them seemed well dodgy, even for the mid-fifties - which we might remember was a time when Noddy was being mugged and stripped naked in the woods by a bunch of golliwogs....
BJ

Not just you. I also found it creepy - especially for some reason the character of Algy - though tbf I didn't read it until a 2nd hand copy in about 1980 - but that may just have been the fact it originated from the Daily Express. Or possibly I was an exceptionally damaged 3-year-old.

[AleisterCrowley]

Yes, I found the annuals both odd and somewhat creepy - they had a slightly hallucinogenic quality. We had a battered pile of them passed down from relatives. I did quite enjoy one where one of Rupert's chums (the brainy one?) was performing experiments with fireworks in an abandoned building in the woods. I was going through a firework/chemistry phase at the time !
There was another one with a lighter-than-air metal as well.
I preferred Tintin to be honest, and was happy to grow up up a bit and get into Malcolm Saville books (compulsory in Shropshire, as many are set there)

[jfgw]

This brought back another memory of something I'd totally forgotten about. There used to be books / comics with black and white drawings in them, but when you painted water over them with a paintbrush they would miraculously become coloured. They weren't exactly creative, but I used to love doing them.

Magic Painting books, pictures covered in black dots that produce colour when painted with plain water. A search shows that they are still readily available and you can relive your childhood memories for a small amount of pocket money.

Julian F. G. W.

[bungeejumper]

Magic Painting books, pictures covered in black dots that produce colour when painted with plain water. A search shows that they are still readily available and you can relive your childhood memories for a small amount of pocket money.

Yes, they're still around. I saw some in my local garden centre the other day, and I think The Works (cut price bookshop) has some. I was an appallingly blodgy painter as a child - couldn't keep my brush within a straight line if my life depended on it - and those books helped to rescue my dignity. Even though they were cheating really. You just had to be really, really careful not to spill your drink onto the books.

BJ

[bungeejumper]

Not just you. I also found it creepy - especially for some reason the character of Algy - though tbf I didn't read it until a 2nd hand copy in about 1980 - but that may just have been the fact it originated from the Daily Express. Or possibly I was an exceptionally damaged 3-year-old.

I think the idea of animal/humans operating in a human world is something that small children will accept without question (Rupert being a prime example), but older children may find more troubling. At age 10 I read The Island of Doctor Moreau (HG Wells), and it scared the bejesus out of me. Dr Frankenstein meets the Twilight Zone movie. Still enjoyed it, though. In fact I must have another read some time.

BJ

[stewamax]

Thanks. Referring to panamagold's link, I think that the two illustrations displayed for each Annual are the front and back covers. There were also two-sided endpapers (inside both the front and back covers) with the illustrations I am looking for.

I didn't find Rupert creepy at all; I was pretty young at the time but appreciated the touches of magic threaded through each story.
I was (and still am) a fan of Alison Uttley's Little Grey Rabbit books, and she had a similar penchant for subtle touches of magic (helped by superb illustrations from Margaret Tempest).

[GN100]

We still have some well thumbed 20 'Little Grey Rabbit' books on a shelf in the house and I think some Rupert annuals as well. I still remember the characters deciding that RSVP meant 'Rat Shan't Visit Party' from some 65 plus years ago.

GN

[stewamax]

The well-thumbed ones of yesteryear have far more of Margaret Tempest's superb illustrations than the later hardback versions (never mind the softback reprints which have been further pruned).
If you have Little Grey Rabbit's Christmas (at least I think it is this one), see if near the end is a two-page spread of Moldy Warp's Xmas tree. Newer versions don't have it.

In passing, it is a matter of record that the Uttley / Tempest relationship later became very acrimonious: Uttley was a jealous soul who claimed total ownership over the characters and resented Tempest's getting equal billing (and equal pay!)