Flex Mentallo

Despite his longevity Rupert has never moved beyond the world of the 1930's. The strips retain precisely the same look and feel, even when fantastical elements are introduced - planes and cars have a charmingly anachronistic feel to them which sits quite well in tales full of dragons and fairies! Here are some random pages from the 1940 and 1941 annuals.

Seeing Scrooge's collection of Fairy Tale Parade in a recent post made me think of similarities in feel with Rupert the Bear, and I wonder how many boardies might not be familiar with him? Rupert was the creation of an illustrator called Mary Tourtel in 1925. His strips were published in the Daily Express to steal readers away from rival newspapers such as the Daily Mail. In 1935 Mary retired owing to failing eyesight, and the strip was taken over by Alfred Bestall, who worked on the strip for 40 years. Every christmas since 1936 a new annual has been published. The first annuals used only two colours but during the war years they began to be published in glowing colour. Here is the cover to the 1940 annual: The publisher, Lord Beaverbrook, decided to continue publishing the annual throughout the war (and in full colour!) as a means of boosting morale - and it worked! From 1941 the cover image often extended round to the back cover: They often displayed a wonderful, free flowing imagination. Here is the cover to 1945: 1959: 1960: Next I'll post a few sample pages from the interiors - hopefully Scrooge will complement these with some Fairy Tale Parade interiors as well!

Tough in grade!

fabtastic! I dont recall ever seeing that one before.

Wonderful set!

O my - those colors are almost unreal! Given that we are accustomed to seeing lots of blue grey on, say, Capt. Marvel Jnr's covers, would it be reasonable to infer that they have faded from bright blue similar to this cover?

Charming cover! Do you know Rupert the Bear? No I can't say I am familiar with that Bear ... Same graphic style? Kind of - pm sent!

Charming cover! Do you know Rupert the Bear?

I can finally give you the "V" sign you so richly deserve!

I suppose it's to his credit that Overstreet is finally catching up here and there with some of these books (Maybe they do listen to Rick sometimes). But in reality he is off on about 50% of the Centaur line (maybe more) especially in higher grades. We probably shouldn't mention it, maybe that way these books will still be affordable for some of us. Sssshhhh!

..and another very elusive book...

Here's a recent pick up

The cat's out of the bag - an unsung masterpiece! Anyone ID the cover artist? Harry Anderson maybe?

I dunno - that's one sexy horse!

Great copy Rich - that one never turns up in grade!

If those are just the A's, one can only imagine the B's through Z's. I don't suppose you'll ever tell us how y ou got this collection, but it sure looks amazing, and I hope you'll show more. We'll have to call it the "super gator" collection!

Another recent acquisisition - a blatant rip off of Wings Comics #91.

A very long time since I added a Matt Baker romance comic to my collection, but this is one I couldnt resist. It's an outsized issue which gives his artwork plenty of room to breath, and there are four masterfully rendered stories inside. As for the cover, I think it's one of the best in the run. As for scarcity? Maybe they are easier to track down if you live in America and can get to visit shows, but this is the first copy I've seen in 20 years of searching!

A very long time since I added a Matt Baker romance comic to my collection, but this is one I couldnt resist. It's an outsized issue which gives his artwork plenty of room to breath, and there are four masterfully rendered stories inside. As for the cover, I think it's one of the best in the run. As for scarcity? This is the first copy I've seen in 20 years of searching! Now where's that Baker thread got to?

All hail Murph the great! Just wondering what was his first work in comics? An early Planet maybe?

At least it went to a good home!

I recently sold a couple of Mile High Fights to fellow boardies - the #14 was a 9.6! So this copy is just a bandage for the wound!