UPDATED: Celebrity comics - Rupert

I've occasionally looked at publisher Celebrity / Clearmark comics in the past...

Count Duckula is here

The wisdom of gnomes is here

Wanted is here

Popular fairy tales here

Were Bears here

The world of Wym here

Tom and Jerry here 

Cookie here

Henry's cat here

Summer specials here

Ovide here

And there may be other titles out there just waiting to be discovered. One such title that was new to me was their Rupert comic from 1989/90. There are a LOT of Rupert comics out there so I'm currently parking this in the 'too difficult' to deal with category. I'll return to it at some point I'm sure. In the meantime if you can help with any details do just get in touch.

I recently spotted an auction lot on eBay for these comics - so I've clipped a few images from the listing for my covers gallery below. 

UPDATE: covers for issues 16 & 17 now added - the covers gallery is now complete!

FURTHER UPDATE: I've now added cover for the summer special

UPDATE: We now know that the title lasted 20 issues. All new images highlighted in red. Interestingly issue 10 has the publisher recorded as Celebrity but by issue 12 the publisher has been amended to Clearmark.

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 1, 18th October 1989, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 2, 1st November 1989, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 3, 15th November 1989, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 4, 29th November 1989, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 5, 13th December 1989, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 6, 27th December 1989, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 7, 10th January 1990, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 8, 24th January 1990, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 9, 7th February 1990, 50p

Celebrity comic, Rupert, issue 10, 21st February 1990, 50p

Clearmark comic, Rupert, issue 11, 7th March 1990, 50p

Clearmark comic, Rupert, issue 12, 21st March 1990, 50p

Clearmark comic, Rupert, issue 13, 4th April 1990, 50p

Clearmark comic, Rupert, issue 14, 18th April 1990, 80p

Clearmark comic, Rupert monthly, issue 15, May 1990, 80p

Clearmark comic, Rupert monthly, issue 16, June 1990, 80p

Clearmark comic, Rupert monthly, issue 17, July 1990, 80p

Clearmark comic, Rupert monthly, issue 18, August 1990, 80p

Clearmark comic, Rupert monthly, issue 19, September 1990, 80p

Clearmark comic, Rupert monthly, issue 20, October 1990, 80p

A very useful overview of the series here...

UPDATED: Cartoon museum publications

I've long wanted to catalogue publications that the Cartoon Museum (here) (and its previous incarnation as Cartoon Art Trust) have published. I'm not sure how many there are out there but this is my way of starting to finding out!

UPDATE (09/04/26); Calman catalogue added

Update - Now with some images added for the Phil May centenary catalogue from 2002. 

The art of Laughter - The Ashmolean museum (1992)

Giles - 50 years of work for Express Newspapers (dates unknown)

Lottery laughter - an anthology of Lottery cartoons (20th October - 18th November 1999)

The 100 British Cartoonists of the century (exhibition 26th Feb - 12th April 2000)

Flotsam and Jensen: Celebrating 55 Years of Cartooning, Illustration and Caricature (2002?)

The art of leaving out : Phil May 1864-1903, a centenary exhibition (2002)

Cartoon Art Trust Museum/University of Gloucestershire, 2002

24 pages

Mixture of Gin and Buttercups: a Retrospective Exhibition of the Cartoons and Caricatures of Michael Ffolkes at the Cartoon Art Trust Museum : 4 September - 1 November 2003

Thelwell country (exhibition 6th January - 6th February 2004)

Grin and Blair it! (exhibition 27th October - 18th December 2004)

Mars in their eyes (exhibition dates TBC but thought to be 2006)

"You're Not Art..." A collection of Calmans

believed to be a 2006 exhibition. 38 pages, softback, with dustjacket

A view of Dightons - the Dighton family, their time, caricatures and portraits (2007?)

Heath Robinson's helpful solutions (exhibition 5 July - 7 October 2007)

Eurobollocks! (exhibition 10 October 2007 - 20 January 2008) 

Pont - observing the British at home & abroad (exhibition 23 April - 27 July 2008)

A peep into clubland (exhibition 18th February - 3rd May 2009)

Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! (exhibition 6th May - 26th July 2009)

Ronald Searle - graphic master (exhibition 3rd March - 4th July 2010)

Bell époque - 30 years of Steve Bell (exhibition 25th May - 24th July 2011)

HM Bateman - the man who went mad on paper (exhibition 11th April - 22nd July 2012)

Steadman @ 77, (exhibition 1 May - 8 September 2013)

The Windsor tapestry (exhibition, 16th November 2024 - 30th March 2025

UPDATED: Scouse Mouse an incomplete guide

UPDATED (08/04/26) - with 2 (of the 4) covers for Whizzer & Chips that include 'with Scouse Mouse' in the title

New comic highlighted in purple...

One of the first comics I ever blogged about was 'Ace' or 'Scouse Mouse presents Ace!' comic to give it it's full title.

I'm still not clear on the chronology of this comic but I know that the last issue was April 1989 (see the Werewolf cover, below). 

Scouse Mouse presents the Ace! comic, fun special

Scouse Mouse presents Ace! comic, issue 1

Scouse Mouse presents Ace! comic, issue 2

Scouse Mouse comic, issue 3

Based on the image from the image on the back of issue 3 (above) we know that the title was then re-named 'Scouse Mouse and the scallywags'...

Scouse Mouse and the scallywags!comic, issue 4

ebay listing dates this to November 1987

This is un-numbered but if issue 4 (above) is from November then this is presumably issue #5 (December 1987) 

It ends up as just being Scouse Mouse by the time it merges into Whizzer & Chips (on 15th April 1989 - the Scouse Mouse logo was dropped from the masthead after precisely 4 weeks, apparently) - so maybe the December date on the above comic means it's from 1988. Again, copyright dates are missing from these comics.

Scouse Mouse and the Scallywags, January 1988

Scouse Mouse and the Scallywags, Smoochy February Edition

Scouse Mouse and the Scallywags, Mad March Edition

Scouse Mouse and the Scallywags, Super Spring Edition

As this has the same price as previous issues I'm assuming it wasn't actually a holiday special type issue (despite the title) so I'd guess this was Spring 1988

Scouse Mouse and the Scallywags, Jolly June Edition

I'm assuming this is from June 1988 - Nigel Parkinson draws the first strip here (and has signed his work).

The comic ends up as just being Scouse Mouse by the time it merges into Whizzer & Chips (on 15th April 1989 - the Scouse Mouse logo was dropped from the masthead after precisely 4 weeks, apparently)...

Scouse Mouse (Fleetway) - issue 1, November 1988

Scouse Mouse (Fleetway) - issue 2, December 1988

Scouse Mouse (Fleetway) - issue 3, January 1989

Scouse Mouse (Fleetway) - issue 4, February 1989

image not to hand - can you help?

Scouse Mouse (Fleetway) - issue 5, March 1989

Scouse Mouse (Fleetway) - issue 6, April 1989

George Nicholas also worked on the Budgie Malone comic - which I looked at here , here and here as well as Were Bears comic (here). All 3 titles are hard to collect - so good luck in your collecting. 

I've tried to piece together all the appearances of Were Bears, Star Bears and Scare Bears here 

George has a website here

Friend of the blog Stephen Archer has let me have the following information about the 1989 issues of Whizzer & Chips...

Beginning with 15/4/89, and omitting 22/4, 17/6, 15/7, 16/9, 11/11, 18/11 and 9/12 (as those dates aren’t held by the British Library) and are thus uncheckable, Scouse Mouse appeared continuously until the end of the year with the exceptions of 14/10 and 2/12.

Whizzer and Chips with Scouse Mouse, 15th April 1989

Whizzer and Chips with Scouse Mouse, 22nd April 1989

Whizzer and Chips with Scouse Mouse, 29th April 1989

cover not to hand - can you help?

Whizzer and Chips with Scouse Mouse, 5th May 1989
cover not to hand - can you help?

Here's another 1989 issue of Whizzer and Chips that features Scouse Mouse on the cover

Comics artist Nigel Parkinson has provided this timeline...

a). 2 issues of ACE in 1986;

b). 13 issues of Scouse Mouse (and the Scallywags) published by Modelbrisk, 1987-8; 

c). 6 issues of Scouse Mouse published by Fleetway 1988-9