Performer(s) Appeared in Rupert Bear is a children's comic strip character created by the English artist Mary Tourtel and first appearing in the Daily Express newspaper on November 8, 1920. He is a bear cub who lives with his parents in a house in Nutwood, a fictional idyllic English village. He is drawn wearing a red sweater and bright yellow checked trousers, with matching yellow scarf. Originally depicted as a brown bear, his colour soon changed to white to save on printing costs, though he remained brown on the covers of the annuals.