Numskulls

The Numskulls, little people who lived inside a man and operated the various parts of his head, first appeared in The Beezer in 1962, drawn by Malcolm Judge.

The original set of Numskulls were Brainy (who controlled the brain), Blinky (who controlled the eyes), Nosey (who controlled the nose), Luggy (who controlled the ears), Alf and Fred (who controlled the mouth)

Tom Lavery drew the strip from 1979 to 1984, after which Jimmy Glenn took over. Judge took it back a few year later and continued to draw it until 1988, when Steve Bright took it over.

When The Beezer and The Topper merged to become The Beezer and Topper, The man that the numskulls controlled was replaced with a boy, and the numskulls were given slight redesigns. This was the first incarnation of The Numskulls to have only one numskull controlling the mouth, although the strip still revolved around six numskulls- the extra one being Nutty, who wasn't assigned to any part of the boy's head but would often come up with daft ideas that would inevitably cause grief for the other numskulls.

Several months after The Beezer and Topper folded in 1993, the strip made a return in The Beano, now drawn by Tom Paterson. Once again, the strip was retooled. The numskulls were redesigned completely; Nosey was now called Snitch, Luggy was now called Radar the numskull controlling the mouth became called Cruncher. The numskulls now controlled a boy called Edd.

After 2000, Paterson shared the strip with Barry Glennard and Dave Eastbury. By the end of 2003 Barry Glennard had become the permanent artist, though Tom Paterson stood in for him several times from 2007 onwards.

An alternate Numskulls strip ran alongside the Beano incarnation in the digital Dandy, drawn by Jamie Smart.

In 2013, Nigel Auchterlounie became the artist and writer for the Beano incarnation of The Numskulls. Up until early 2014 the strip focused on the numskulls of various celebrities and occasionally other Beano stars, before going back to focusing on Edd's numskulls.