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The Numskulls is a comic strip which appears in The Beano, and has previously appeared in The Beezer and The Dandy comics also owned by DC Thomson. The strip is about a team of tiny human-like technicians, known as Numskulls, who live inside the heads of various people, running and maintaining their bodies, minds and senses like a machine. It first appeared in The Beezer in 1962, drawn by Malcolm Judge. In the original Beezer stories, the Numskulls lived in a middle-aged man who was never named, with the Numskulls themselves referring to him as 'Our Man'. This changed when The Beezer merged with The Topper in 1990, with the Numskulls now controlling a young boy, who they called 'Our Boy'. In The Beezer, Judge drew the strip until 1979 when he was replaced by Tom Lavery. In The Beezer and Topper the story was initially drawn by John Dallas, but Steve Bright would draw it until the comic ended in August 1993.

In October 1993, two months after the final issue of The Beezer and Topper was published, The Numskulls made their debut appearance in The Beano in issue 2674 (dated 16th October 1993), coinciding with the comic's switch to full colour printing. For the first time, the Numskulls' boy was given a name, Edd Case (although he is usually referred to simply as Edd). In The Beano version of the strip, Edd has five Numskulls running his head and senses:

  • Brainy - controls Edd's brain and acts as leader of The Numskulls
  • Blinky - controls Edd's eyes and sight
  • Cruncher - controls Edd's mouth and taste
  • Radar - controls Edd's ears and hearing
  • Snitch - controls Edd's nose and smell

Additional Numskulls which control other parts of Edd's body have occasionally also been seen.

When The Numksulls first transferred to The Beano the strip was drawn by Tom Paterson, who continued to draw it regularly until late 2000, when he handed over art duties to Barry Glennard. However, Paterson would later return to draw a number of strips between 2007 and 2009. Glennard was the strip's main artist until 2013 when it was taken over by Nigel Auchterlounie, who writes the strip as well as drawing it. In Auchterlounie's first few months working on the strip, the stories focused on the Numskulls living inside various celebrities, but Edd returned the following year.

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