Thomas Samuel, a.k.a. T. Samuel or Samuval, was a cartoonist from Kerala who published under the name 'Samuel'. In India, he is revered as the inventor of the box or pocket comic. He was born in Kerala in 1925. He was a Mayo School of Industrial Arts graduate from Lahore (now the National College of Arts). After four years, he left to join the Delhi edition of The Times of India as a staff cartoonist, creating the country's first pocket cartoon, 'This is Delhi," in 1953. It even found a post-Partition readership across the border, and the Pakistani papers ran it as 'This is Lahore'. The pocket cartoon was later renamed "Babuji" after its main character and became popular under that name. The strip was appreciated primarily because it echoed the thoughts of middle-class Indians. According to Ritu Gairola Khanduri, "Although Laxman’s "You Said It" pocket cartoon series and his common man character caught the public imagination, more credit than has been accorded is due to Samuel and "Babuji". "Babuji" inaugurated the concept of the common man — an office clerk—and his travails in India’s pocket cartoon world. Bibiji was pictured too. Samuel spent time living in a clerk’s home to observe the humdrum he was to caricature". Later, he participated in the Burma Campaign as an Army soldier during World War II. His autobiography, Never a Dull Moment, details his upbringing and wartime experiences.