December 10 marked the first anniversary of the death of Maurice Tanti Burlò, cartoonist for the Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta for 37 years. Tanti Burlò used his cartoons to chronicle the island’s social and political life and he could be witty, deadly serious, trivial and devastating.

He began drawing cartoons in October 1977 to “get back at [Dom] Mintoff” for the way em­ployees such as himself at Telemalta (the State telecommunications company), were suspended without pay for supporting striking doctors, nurses and bankers.

His cartoons often included the ‘Dudu’ (worm), shown here, representing himself, who would add a witty comment to the caption.

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