While in his twenties, Scottish artist Malcolm Judge began contributing to the newspapers and magazines of D.C. Thomson & Co. He decided to try his hand at Thomson's comic strips in 1948, but it would not be until 1960 that Judge's cartoon career really took off. For Thomson's The Beezer he created 'The Badd Lads' and he started 'Colonel Crackpot's Circus' for Beano. He signed his work with the pen name "Mal". Within the next three years came Mal's best-loved series 'The Numskulls' and 'Billy Whizz'. Mal later added 'Ali and His Baba', 'Ball Boy' and 'Square Eyes' to his comic creations. Malcolm Judge died on January 17, 1989.