Rupert at War

Alfred Bestall’s Rupert at War Stephen Bigger, 2009. Introduction. The Rupert Bear strips in the Daily Express were begun by Mary Tourtel in 1920 until poor health caused her to withdraw in 1936. Alfred Bestall was commissioned to take them over in 1936, after a varied career as illustrator in various books and magazines. Rupert became his life’s work up to 1973 when a disagreement with the newspaper, over altering his 1973 Annual artwork (making it the only “white faced Rupert” Annual cover), brought about his resignation which caused five years of great uncertainty. Mostly, the stories in the Annuals first appear in newspaper strips, which were coloured for the Annual, but some stories were specially written for Annuals. Where this is significant, I indicate it in the analysis which follows. This article discusses the strips and stories presented during war years, and especially 1939-1945 although there is one significant cold war addition. Although there are of course few direct references to war conditions, the anxieties surrounding fighting, bombing, and invasion fears affects creative thoughts even in these ‘simple’ stories for young children. Actually, Bestall stories are never simple. Rupert’s imagined adventures have to be taken as true as Rupert himself takes them, and as children tend to think of their own adventures. Mrs Bear delightfully welcomes him back for tea with ‘Have you had a nice day dear”, when yes he has, delivering the world from mass destruction, monsters, crooks, tree sprites, imps and the like. And yes please to more jam. 1939-1941. By September 1939, Alfred Bestall had developed his personal style in the Daily Express Rupert strips and maintained the tradition of Christmas annuals, entitled Adventures, New Adventures or More Adventures of Rupert. The following were collected in the 1941 Annual. As war broke out, Rupert and the Sea Serpent was half way through, ending 6th October. Of course in the pre-war post Munich world Britain was aware that it was on the edge of chaos, which the sea serpent represents, and there is a hope that chaos will be friendly in the end. Many writers express deep anxieties in this immediately pre-war period, from Nevil Shute’s vivid description of a bombed city, in Whatever Happened to the Corbetts? (1939), or Percy Westerman’s Secret Flight (1939) in which the (hopelessly optimistic) demonstration of superior technology persuades the Axis powers to stop their belligerence. The following, Rupert and the Mystery Pond was the first strip to be completed in wartime though we don't know when it was started. In the story, Rupert meets a mysterious stranger, who remains mysterious to the end. All we know is that he was an explorer looking for Nutwood Lake. He is injured, and Rupert completes the mission, meeting in the depths of the earth an ancient and huge toad who tells him what to do. Going through potholes and tunnels is a common theme in Bestall's Rupert stories, standing for the journey into the imagination to find wisdom and insight. The toad stands for tradition and continuity, and the whirlpool Rupert dives into to reach the surface shows that at the end of peril lies comfort and safety, or expressed the other way round, one has to risk peril to achieve peace and security. The fantasy elements in any story have an underlying psychology, visualising and representing social 1 phenomena. I attempt explanations throughout this paper, but there is no fixed almanac of meanings – readers are encouraged to work things out and perhaps disagree. The toad is deep down in the earth through a tunnel – deep in the subconscious or unconscious. It is ancient, hence tradition, continuity, the status quo. It is huge, the enormous body of tacit knowledge. It distils this into wisdom, providing strength and common sense. Rupert obeys, and it does not fail him; despite the danger and fear he survives and returns to the surface. The period around the start of the war was a time to keep one’s nerve. ‘Common’ sense is uncommon, but important. Avoidance of panic was essential. In that great reservoir of English tradition lay the answers. Listen to it, listen to the toad. Probably, Rupert and the Little Woodman was perhaps the first story wholly conceived in war, beginning 14th November. This is a story of shirkers. Porky makes every excuse not to cooperate in collective action, and is greedy, consuming rather than sharing. Porky wants to know if we can have things without working for them, and so continue his idle life. This was a time of shortage, rationing, and spivs, then the rich were able to eat in unrationed restaurants. Porky is dressed as the squire, in posh attire, plus fours and waistcoat. The chums are directed to the little woodman who has a shop in the forest and is responsible for all forest magic (he is mixing colours for flowers as we meet him). He gives Porky ice cream plants which, we know later, are intended to punish him and bring him to his senses by making him ill. The seeds immediately germinate and produce ice creams next day. Porky gobbles his, and is ill. Rupert offered his to his mother (and thereby is generous) who eats it and is also ill. The lesson is that one person’s greed has consequences on others. Rupert fetches the antidote to the poison (the antidote to greed is generosity, which he has also administered), mother is cured, and Porky repents. Selfishness will not win the war. Even Porkies, the proverbial greedy pigs, can reform. Take a thought also for forest magic. The bounty of the hedgerow and forest is magnificent and not to be taken for granted. Beauty and fruitfulness is magic in a way – but not everything is good to eat. Nature, the creator, plays jokes sometimes. It pays to be sure about what one decides to eat. Rupert and the Forest Fire began in the new year (22 January, 1940) after a Christmas offering. This is dark in two ways. The world (Nutwood) is on fire and all the animals are panicking. But it is all smoke and no fire (a good description of the phoney war) and the smoke is located as coming from an underground inventor's workshop. The panic is caused by new technology. The inventor has made a car which runs on a coiled spring (no oil, which is in short supply) but wishes to keep the secret for himself (so is a war profiteer) and imprisons Rupert. Rupert escaped but is recaptured and taken on the test run (the inventor, dressed in army uniform, almost Heil Hitlers with arm raised in one scene, showing how selfishness serves the enemy). The coiled spring comes loose, Rupert is thrown into a tree by it, the car sinks into a bog, and the inventor clears out secretly with empty hands. It pays therefore to watch out for crooks and fifth columnists, our own people who sabotage the war effort and play the Nazi’s game for them. Such selfishness plays only into enemy hands. Rupert and the Red Egg (from 23rd February 1940) introduces readers to the 'Master's' new aeroplane, a helicopter or more probably an autogyro, that is a plane with forward propulsion with free-rotating rotor blades for upward lift. A red egg is found and taken 2 to China (by Rupert and Ping Pong, carried by the Messenger Bird) for explanation, where it hatches out to become a baby dragon, which endangers the Chinese emperor also. It constitutes a real danger in human society and needs to be taken back to the land of dragons, which the bird carries out. The plane arrives to take the chums home. The story shows that a great destructive force has been born, and has to be put back in its place, nipped in the bud before it becomes indestructible. Flight and the aeroplane will be a crucial tool in achieving this. What does the dragon represent? Traditionally chaos, the eternity from which everything comes and to which everything goes. The Vikings pictured the dragon eating its tail, everlastingly. Ancient creation stories derive being from chaos and a chaos dragon. It is disorder, hostility, destruction. Its place is not here and it must be removed from here, by force if necessary. I held over the Christmas story of December 1939-January 1940 (as this was reprinted in the 1942 Annual) Rupert and the Wrong Presents (22 December to 20th January). Rupert wrote to Santa asking for a motor boat and received a pair of boots with wings. His father received a flute instead of a pipe. Thus begins a cunning tale. Wearing the boots, he found himself flying. The flute summons a wooden bird. The bird is so alarmed at the wrong presents being in the public domain (flight and secret signals) that Rupert is brought to Santa's castle (representing the prime minister), helped by a toy hurricane plane. The open distribution of top secret ordnance has alarmed the Christmas authorities, and Rupert is clearly doing a service to national security. (The flying shoes would have been much more fun than a boat). A golly (no longer a gollywog in the reproduction edition, just golly+ white space) is the doorboy, and Santa’s 'secretary', looks like a bureaucrat or politician with a dolly-bird typist. Rupert is sent with a covering letter to Santa who explains, "You see, Rupert, ...I had heaps of extra work to do last Christmas, because lots of children were spending Christmas in other people's homes, and I had a job to find them at all".

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