His first published work was a strip called "Jeff Collins - Crime Reporter" in Magno Comic, a one-shot published in 1946 by International Publications in Glasgow. More work for small publishers followed, including Cartoon Art's Marsman Comics (1948) and Super-Duper (1949) and Martin & Reid's The Rancher and Jolly Western (both 1949) before starting his long association with D. C. Thomson in 1949, drawing an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's The Lady in the Lake in the People's Journal, and "Sir Solomon Snoozer" in the Dandy. It is said that he got his first work with D. C. Thomson after his sister sent them samples of his art.