Birger Malmborg was born in the small town of Nykroppa, Varmland. His father worked at the railways, and after a while the Malmborg family moved to the town of Kattbo. The family lived in a railway home outside the village, which meant that the road to school for young Birger was a long walk along the railway tracks. After six years of primary school, Malmborg went to work in the iron industry. He didn't get much pleasure from this line of work, and when he was at home with a soccer injury, he took up his brother's unused drawing course. He eventually was accepted in Berggrens Art Academy in Stockholm in 1938.
After this education, he goes to seek inspiration in South-Europe as a cubist painter. He could live from his art thanks to his comic strip 'Götlund', that appears in the union magazine Metallarbetaren from 1938. This four-panel comic reflected the everyday day of the worker's man, in good times and bad times. Malmborg originally found his inspiration from the metalworkers, but soon he focused on everyday life in general, depicting habits as fishing, a visit to the barber and household activities. Malmborg continued his comic strip non-stop until his death in 1982, even when he lived in Spain, Italy and France in the 1940s and 1950s.
Götland, by Birger Malmborg