Ratz (comic strip)

Ratz is a comic strip appearing in UK comic The Beano, which first appeared on August 19, 2006. It was developed by artist Hunt Emerson to replace the retired strip Little Plum, which he had worked on since 2002. The stories follow the lives of a group of rats who live in the sewers beneath Beanotown, the main characters being Keef (the nominal leader), Rod (a spiv), and Herman, their naive sidekick. Other characters, such as Patti, Rubella and RastaRat make occasional appearances. Hunt Emerson was the original artist, with Laura Howell inking in his pencils from October 2006 onwards and on occasion drawing the strip. In the Beano Annual 2008, Ratz is changed to "Its a Ratz Life!" because the usual Ratz characters were not the main focus, but instead a pair of Ratz setting up home together (on a rubbish dump), and this strip was done before the strip first appeared in the comic itself (when the strip was going to be given that title).

Laura Howell has announced that with Hunt Emerson drawing the Fred's Bed strip (which was previously reprints), she will be drawing Ratz as well as writing it.  In a couple of issues in September 2011, Ratz was the first strip inside the comic, a slot usually reserved for Dennis and Gnasher, although Dennis appeared on the cover as usual. Before this strip was Rats, a very similar strip about smelly rodents in a sewer, although these bunch were more friends. It was drawn by Terry Bave and Nigel Parkinson, appearing in the 1994-2003 Beezer Books and The Dandy issue 3281.