The Nibblers

The first Nibblers  children's stories, about a family of mice living in a grainstore, were written by Janet Easson of Dundee and broadcast as part of Children's Hour on the Scottish Home Service. The first story 'Dilly Dally and the Dutchess' was part of the opening broadcast from the new BBC Dundee Studio on 27 August 1949 and Janet Easson regularly broadcast her Nibblers  short stories until 1965. The stories featured Mr Nibbler  as a sort of hero figure who was able to rescue the Grainstore Mice from the clutches of McPouncer o' the Cats' Police Force  on many occasions. Ruff, Tuff and Fluff  were the Nibbler children and Sarah Squeaker  their gossiping neighbour. There were many other interesting characters such as '''Freddie Frisker, Uncle Bouncer, Lord and Lady Longtail and Collie Bowf.  Starting on 13 February 1956 Janet Easson teamed up with the artist Tom Kerr, also of Dundee, to publish The Nibblers as a comic strip in The Bulletin and Scots Pictorial''' a daily newspaper published in Glasgow. Publication continued until the Bulletin ceased publication in 1960.

The Nibblers were fictional characters who had their own comic strip in the UK comic The Beano. The Nibblers were a community of mice who lived in a hole in the wall, and were always stealing food from Porky, the fat owner of the house. Porky and his cat Whiskers were repeatedly foiled in their attempts to catch The Nibblers, who nearly always had the last laugh. Like The Bash Street Kids, the Nibblers all had distinct personalities. Their names were:


 * His Nibs - The chief nibbler.
 * Cheddar George - Champion guzzler.
 * Gordonzola - Half-Scottish, half-Italian.
 * Enor Mouse - Strong, but er... daft.
 * Chiseller - Our engineer.
 * Sniffler - A nose for food and trouble.
 * Scritch and Scratch - The terrible twins, similar to Snitch and Snatch in Lord Snooty.

The strip originally ran from 1970 to 1974. In 1977 it was revived, and continued in the comic until 1984. The initial run was drawn by Ron Spencer, and the second by John Sherwood.

In the Ratz strip in the Beano Annual 2009, Herman, one of the main characters, goes off to Hollywood. Keef and Rod look for a new Herman and the Nibblers audition for the vacancy. They made a surprise reappearance in the 2012 annual, drawn by David Sutherland, along with a reprint in the weekly comic's Retro Beano section in issue 3597, dated 6 August 2011.