In early 2024 our Sunday E-dition introduced "Rupert," a cartoon series by Kathleen Scavone featuring a flower with a sharp wit and a knack for pointing out life’s quirks. Over the past year, Rupert has become a reader favorite, offering dry humor, clever observations and the occasional moment of reflection.
Whether he’s sizing up a sunflower, dodging a rake or musing on the oddities of his world, Rupert’s perspective has brought a fresh and entertaining voice to Napa Valley Features. Scavone’s illustrations and dialogue have a way of blending humor with a dose of honesty that makes us laugh and then pause.
As 2024 draws to a close, we reflect on some of our favorite "Rupert" comics and hear directly from Kathleen about the series' history and inspiration.
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Rupert the Talking Flower
By Kathleen Scavone
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — I created the single panel cartoon, “Rupert,” in 1979 when it first ran in the Middletown Times Star Newspaper. The flower motif that I use for Rupert has always been a part of my ceramic maker's mark on the bottom of my wheel-thrown stoneware pottery. Now that I think of it, the little flower was something I doodled on notes and schoolwork, too, since I am inept at bona fide drawing, unlike my mom, a gifted artist who thrived in the Sonoma art scene for decades. I like to use the New Courier font for Rupert, since it resembles the typed cartoons created BC (before computers). That, in some ways, was a simpler time.
Like millions of others, I loved the Sunday comics growing up, including “Peanuts,” “Blondie” and “The Family Circus,” and later, “The Far Side,” “Garfield” and others. After all, who doesn't need a mini break from the real world now and then? I decided to use the name Rupert for the cartoon since I didn't know anyone with that name. Then I became hooked on world travel and learned the name wasn't as unique as I'd believed, but decided not to change it!
Generating Rupert cartoons has always been a quick way for me to obtain a creativity fix. Since I have many interests including photography, freelance writing, history, art, science, poetry and short fiction, it always made sense to me to keep my hand in a small, creative project in between larger projects. Hence, a talking flower with a unique slant on the world that is viewed as both earthy and wise with tongue firmly planted in cheek came to be!
The cartoon is simple, fun and, I think, relatable. For example, when Rupert is stepped on and his stamens are killing him, I think we can all relate to simple annoyances in life, or to take it further, injustices. When Rupert is looking into a living room window and sees a friend in a jar of potpourri, a similar feeling is evoked, that of unfairness and the world of suffering that we all inhabit at one time or another. It is my sincere hope that you have fun with Rupert and have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., retired educator, is a potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park,” "People of the Water" and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She loves hiking, travel, photography and creating her single panel cartoon called Rupert. She can be reached through her website: www.KathleenScavone.com.
I love the Rupert cartoons. My fav is “ What the carnation. “