Rupert and the Weather Man | Mark Manley: Restoring and Colouring a comic from 1964

Restoring and Colouring a comic from 1964.
Mark Manley on how he worked on 'Rupert And the Weather Man', from 1964.
Originally illustrated and written by: Alfred Bestall, Mbe
History:
Alfred Edmeades Bestall was born on December 14th 1892, in Mandalay, Burma, the son of Methodist missionaries. He attended Rydal school in Colwyn Bay, which gave him a love of the Welsh countryside and where he obtained a scholarship to the Birmingham Central School (Now College) of Art.
After the retirement in 1935 of Mary Tourtel, Rupert's originator, Alfred Bestall wrote and illustrated his first Rupert story, Rupert, Algy and the Smugglers, at the age of 42. It was an amazing achievement. Though he had illustrated many stories, he had never before both written and illustrated them. From that first story, the enchantment was there, and still delights us over half a century later. He was to continue as Rupert author and illustrator for the next thirty years.
Out of respect for Mary Tourtel, Alfred Bestall did not sign his Rupert artwork in her lifetime. In fact she died on March 15th, 1948, aged 74. From then onwards, he felt free to sign his work. On the available evidence, Alfred wrote and illustrated at least 273 Rupert stories, which constitute almost one half of the total Rupert stories ever written. 224 were published first as strips in the Daily Express running from 28th June,1935 to 22nd July, 1965. 40 were specially written for Annuals and at least 7 appeared first in the Adventure series.
There are however some Rupert stories by Alfred Bestall which have never appeared in book form.They were originally published as strips in the Daily Express, and as such only appeared in the Express.
Most of them only appeared once, in their original run, and have never been printed in bookform or ever again in the Express.
One of those stories is; 'Rupert and the Weater Man' from 1964. Artist and illustrator Mark Manley has spent the past year restoring this story digitally, only with the use of original, hand-cut pieces of the newspapers from 1964. A very painstaking matter which consumes a lot of time, patience and pencils.
After that he coloured the whole story. The story was never coloured by Bestall or a other artist, because it didn't need to at the time. The newspapers didn't printed Rupert in colour at the time like they do these days. Mark coloured every story digitally on his IPad and based the colors on the era in which the comic was published (1960s). Another painstaking thing to do in which he used various techniques to capture the spirit of the times and create depth.
On the Followers Fun and AGM day at Warwick University on the 2nd of September 2023, Mark gave a talk and presentation about his work on restoring and colouring this comic. How he did it and what he had to do. Also he talked about the discoveries he made about techniques Alfred Bestall used all those years ago and about future projectes.
The restored comic will be exclusively available for members of the Followers of Rupert from October 2023 and they will either recieve by post or they can buy it from the members shop on the Followers website.
Original Rupert text and illustrations are © Express Newspapers plc.
Originally illustrated and written by: Alfred Bestall, MBE.
Restored and coloured by: Mark Manley
Original Rupert drawings made by Mark Manley (shown at te end of this film) may not be distributed without his permission.
Filmed and edited by: Jordy Schaap (September 2, 2023, Coventry, England)
With permission and at the request of The Followers of Rupert.
www.rupertbear.co.uk
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