Marc Malès studied art in Paris. After graduating, he got a job at the publishing agency of Jijé's son Benoît Gillain. At the same time, he started making comics and illustrations for publishers and magazines like Ed. Twin Cam, Métal Hurlant, Triolo and Confidences. In 1981 he launched the series 'Jérôme Collard' in Gomme. Two years later, Malès cooperated on the 'BD Noires' collection of Glénat publishers, drawing 'La Mort Obèse' and 'Le Requin', two stories starring the character Franck Weiss. In 1985 he started the series 'De Silence et de Sang' with François Corteggiani in Vécu, but left the artwork on the comic after three episodes to Jean-Yves Mitton.
Malès went to the Bayard Presse group, where he illustrated for several titles (Je Bouquine, I Love English, etc.), mostly comic adaptations of novels, such as 'Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain, 'Mon Oncle Jules' by Guy De Maupassant, 'The Gold Bug' by Edgar Allan Poe and 'Un Sac de Billes' by Joseph Joffo. For Glénat in the 1990s he worked with Jean Dufaux on a comics biography of Ernest Hemingway ('La Mort du Léopard', 1992) and albums like 'Hammett' (1996) and 'Les Révoltés' (1998). In addition, he worked with Alain Bouton on 'Vénerie - Cuirassier' in Glénat's collection Grafica in 1994. Together with Ph. Thirault, he began the western series 'Mille Visages' for Les Humanoides Associés in 2001. Malès and Thirault continued their collaboration with a comics adaptation of Thirault's novel 'Lucy' in the collection Empreinte(s) of Dupuis in 2004.