Ġorġ Mallia, head of the University of Malta’s department of media and communications, is celebrating 13 years at the university.

Dr Mallia joined as senior lecturer in February 2008, before being appointed associated professor in 2017.

At the University of Malta, he additionally lectures in design, illustration, visual narrative, and personal communications.

He says he is “in love with books, comics, cartoons and anything that's media related.”

Dr Mallia is also an accomplished illustrator and cartoonist, and describes himself as a “compulsive sketcher”.

He is a prolific writer, and has had several texts published, including the popular children’s books featuring “l-Professur Għasfur”, published by Merlin.

In March, he wrote a free e-book for children stuck at home because of the pandemic, the English translation of which found itself on international reading lists saw it achieve impressive readership figures, with over 1000 gigabytes worth of downloads registered.

Dr Mallia is also known for his production of what was, at the time, Malta’s only “only regular socio-political comic strip (One Family) in The Sunday Times between 1993 and 2008.”