| The Mctickles | |
|---|---|
| Comic strip character(s) from The Beano | |
) | |
| Publication information | |
| Current/last artist | Vic Neill |
| First appearance | Issue 1522 (18 September 1971) |
| Last appearance | Issue 1676 (31 August 1974) |
| Also appeared in | The Beano Annual |
| Current status | Discontinued |
| Characters | |
| Regular characters | Chief Jock, Murdo, Morag, Nickol, Donald, The McNasties, The McHaggises |
The McTickles was a British gag-a-day comic strip in the British comic book magazine The Beano. It was drawn by Vic Neill and ran from 1971 to 1974.
Concept
Chief Jock and his highland clan fought a comic war of attrition against their rivals the McNasties, while avoiding the pranks played on them by the "McHaggises", small round animals, with a similar shape to a haggis with long noses and thistles for ears. Some McHaggises had different lengthened legs on opposite sides of their bodies, allowing them to remain horizontal while walking around the sides of mountains. The many types of 'McHaggises' consisted of Spiky Hedgehoggis, Fiery McHaggis, Roller McHaggis etc. (This is in fact a common joke used by Scottish people when "explaining" the haggis to uninitiated visitors.) Another recurring comic device was to prefix "Mc" to important words and onomatopoeia. For example, if someone fired a gun, the sound would be written "McBang".The leader of The McTickles was named Chief Jock and the other Mctickles were Morag (Stroppy middle-aged woman), Murdo who had a long beard, Nickol who was one of the younger clan members, Donald who is also one of the younger clan members and some others who were never named.
History
After four years the strip was replaced by another Scottish-highland themed strip, Wee Ben Nevis, also drawn by Neill.