Cartoonist, children's author and academic Ġorġ Mallia has died at the age of 68, leaving behind a decades-long legacy spanning education, illustration, publishing and the Maltese media.

Mallia was a professor at the University of Malta and headed its Department of Media and Communications, where he taught and mentored thousands of students over the years.

Born in Qormi, Mallia received his education at the Lyceum, the Upper Secondary School, and the UM from where he graduated BA (Hons.) in English (1979) and MA in communication studies (1994).

He also holds a Ph.D in Instructional Technology from the University in Sheffield, UK (2003). He has been lecturing in communications at the Centre for Communication Technology of the UM since 1996, at first as assistant lecturer, being appointed lecturer in 2003 and senior lecturer in 2008.

Mallia started his career as a short story writer on BBC World Service (1977) and in 1978 he started, 'Mill-Ħsieb għall-Kelma' - a programme of literary analysis for radio.

He contributed cartoon strips for Il-Ħaddiema Żgħażagħ (1980) and led the first design and layout team of Il-Ġens.

He started a comic strip called 'Il-Familja Borg' (1988). He also began publishing cartoons internationally.

In 1989 he redesigned Leħen is-Sewwa and from 1990 to 1992 he had a regular cartoon panel in The Times. In 1990 he wrote and produced the TV series 'Il-Kastell Imsaħħar' and in 1992 he became part of the editorial and production team of Sagħtar.

Since 1993, he has been drawing the popular 'One Family' socio/political satirical comic strip in The Sunday Times.

In 1996, Mallia won the Broadcasting Authority best radio programme of the year in the cultural section with his analysis of Maltese humour in 'Biex Nidħku?'. Other radio series he has produced include 'Lwien' and 'Għandi Pjaċir'.

He has presented research papers on communications and instructional design and technology in many different countries, and has also lectured extensively abroad.

He was also on editorial boards of academic journals and on the scientific committees of research conferences.

In 2005, he was appointed chairman of the National Book Council, being reconfirmed in 2007 and 2009.

Mallia's publications include the Pullu series of books for young children and Il-Kukkudrill Eroj (2000 to 2006), Short Stories, comic books, adventure stories, as well as a number of academic papers in academic publications.

As a writer Mallia often explored in depth the prose possibilities of idiomatic Maltese and as an illustrator, he married freehand drawing with computer generated graphics.

In more recent years, Mallia remained active across publishing, academia and illustration.

He served as chair of Malta University Press and continued producing children's literature, with L-Istejjer tal-Professur Għasfur published in 2024.

He also continued drawing cartoons and increasingly used his work to commemorate well-known personalities who had died, with veteran broadcaster Norman Hamilton among the most recent figures he depicted.

Mallia also remained engaged with changes affecting the creative industries. Shortly before his death, he had spoken about the growing use of artificial intelligence in publishing and the challenges it poses for illustrators, calling for greater transparency when images are created using AI.