Based on the comic strip created by Mary Tourtel and published in the Daily Express newspaper, debuting on 8 November 1920.
Was subject of a 2003 lawsuit by the Daily Express over claims that the production company Nelvana was sitting on the rights to the series without producing a new series. Though the newspaper regained rights to the characters and the comic strip Nelvana retained the distribution rights to the series.
There is a Rupert Bear Museum in Canterbury attached to the Canterbury Heritage Museum.