Malcolm Judge (1918 – 17 January 1989) was a British cartoonist, best known for his contributions to

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing '' The Dundee Courier'', '' The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics '' Oor ...

's range of comics. He was married, had one daughter, and lived in

Bishopbriggs Bishopbriggs ( sco, The Briggs; gd, Achadh an Easbaig) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the northern fringe of Greater Glasgow, approximately from the city centre. Historically in Lanarkshire, the area was once part of th ...

near

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

. His early career was spent as a writer and journalist, and in 1948 he began contributing comic strips to the newspapers and magazines at DC Thomson. He contributed his first strip, The Badd Lads to ''

The Beezer ''The Beezer'' (called ''The Beezer and Topper'' for the last three years of publication) was a British comic that ran from (issues dates) 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Comic strips in ''The Beezer'' ...

'' in 1960, and

Colonel Crackpot's Circus ''Colonel Crackpot's Circus'' was a British comic strip, published from 1960 until 1963 in '' The Beano''. It was the first Beano comic strip drawn by Malcolm Judge, who later went on to draw ''Billy Whizz'' and '' Ball Boy'' for the same comic, ...

to ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...

'' the same year. He created several more popular strips including

The Numskulls ''The Numskulls'' is a comic strip in '' The Beano'', and previously in ''The Beezer'' and ''The Dandy'' – UK comics owned by D.C Thomson. The strip is about a team of tiny human-like technicians who live inside the heads of various peopl ...

in ''The Beezer'' in 1962,

Billy Whizz Billy Whizz is a fictional character featured in the British comic ''The Beano'', first appearing in issue 1139, dated 16 May 1964, when it replaced The Country Cuzzins. Billy, the title character, is a boy who can run extraordinarily fast. His s ...

in ''The Beano'' in 1964 and

Ball Boy Ball boys and ball girls, also known as ball kids are individuals, usually human youths but sometimes dogs, who retrieve and supply balls for players or officials in sports such as association football, American football, bandy, cricket, tennis ...

in the same comic in 1975. He also drew

Square Eyes In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length ...

for '' The Topper'', and Ali's Baba and

Baron Von Reichs-Pudding ''Sparky'' was a British comic published weekly by DC Thomson, that ran from (issue dates) 23 January 1965 to 9 July 1977 when it merged with '' The Topper'' after 652 issues. From 1965–1980 the comic published an annual entitled '' The Spa ...

in ''

Sparky Sparky is a common nickname for people and animals. In the British Commonwealth, it can also be used to refer to an electrician. People * Sparky Adams (1894–1989), American Major League Baseball player * Sparky Anderson (1934–2010), American ...

'' before and after its merge with ''The Topper''. Judge remained an active contributor to DC Thomson until his death at the age of 70 in early 1989. John Dallas took over Ball Boy, and

John Geering John Keith Geering (9 March 1941 – 13 August 1999) was a British cartoonist with a distinctive, occasionally flamboyant style, most famous for his work for DC Thomson comics including ''Sparky'', '' The Topper'', ''Cracker'', '' Plug'', '' Nut ...

replaced Judge on The Badd Ladds, while the workload on Billy Whizz was shared by

Barrie Appleby Barrie Appleby is a British comics artist who works mainly for Scottish publisher D. C. Thomson & Co., drawing strips such as Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger for '' The Beano'' since the 1970s. He has also drawn Cuddles and Dimples for ...

and Steve Horrocks until the appointment of long-term successor

David Parkins David Alan Parkins (born 2 November 1955) is a British cartoonist and illustrator who has worked for D.C. Thomson, publisher of '' The Beano'' and '' The Dandy''. Now based in Canada, he illustrates children's picture books. Parkins was born in ...

. The Numskulls had already been taken over by Tom Lavery in 1979.

External links

Comiclopedia entry
1918 births 1989 deaths British comics artists The Beano people {{UK-comics-creator-stub