Big Nate

Big Nate
Author(s)	Lincoln Peirce
Website	http://www.bignatebooks.com
Current status / schedule	Ongoing, published online every day
Launch date	1991
Syndicate(s)	Newspaper Enterprise Association (United Feature Syndicate)
Genre(s)	humor, school life

Big Nate is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce. The strip is about a boy named Nate Wright, a rebellious and energetic sixth-grader, and his classmates and teachers. Nate is portrayed as a boy with little interest in studies or conforming to standards. Because of this, he often ends up in detention. Some of the staff at the school include Mrs. Godfrey (Nate's social studies teacher and chief faculty nemesis), art teacher Mr. Rosa, Principal Nichols, Mrs. Shipulski, and Mrs. Czerwicki. Nate's best friends include Francis Pope and Teddy Ortiz. In recent strips they formed a garage band named Enslave the Mollusk, which appears to have broken up. A description from GoComics of Big Nate is:

“

Aspiring cartoonist Nate Wright is the star of Big Nate, the daily and Sunday comic strip distributed by NEA since 1991. Nate is 11 years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, and the all-time record holder for detentions in school history. He's a self-described genius and sixth grade Renaissance Man. Nate, who lives with his dad and older sister, enjoys pestering his family and teachers with his sarcasm.

”

Answering questions from fans in the Washington Post, Peirce revealed the following about the creation of the strip:

“

Big Nate started out as more of a "domestic humor" strip than it is now. It was my intention to feature a lot of stories about Nate's single dad, and all the comic possibilities inherent in that. But before too long, I realized that the part of the strip that I enjoyed most was the school humor. I'd been a teacher myself, and schools can be very funny places.

”

The character is also the focus of a virtual island in the online children's game Poptropica. Three chapter books have been released with at least one more planned. The first in a series of collections of previously published comic strips is also available.

Other characters

• Francis Butthurst Pope: Nate's number one friend, Francis is very intelligent but upsets his friends from time to time. Nate and Francis frequently make fun of each other, but in Big Nate: Strikes Again states that this is how they operate. Contrary to Nate's feelings for them, Francis is friendly with both Mrs. Godfrey and Artur. Francis participates in the band "Enslave the Mollusk" along with Nate, Teddy, and Artur.
• Teddy Ortiz: Nate's number "1A" friend, Teddy has been shown to be a comedic character willing to crack jokes and annoy Nate. Like Francis, Teddy likes Artur and is in "Enslave the Mollusk". Initially Peirce thought that Teddy would become one of Nate's rivals, but instead made him into one of Nate's closest friends. Peirce has never specified in the strip what Teddy stands for (if anything). Teddy's middle name is "√" (the square root sign.) He explains, "My parents are both math teachers."
• Marty Wright: Nate's middle-aged, divorced father. He plays golf, albeit very poorly, and will never allow Nate to have a dog, despite Nate's incessant requests. Formerly known simply as 'Dad', his name was revealed to be Marty at a family get-together. In the strips Marty appears to be a normal sized man with a pot belly, whereas in Nate's own drawings he is more circular and obese looking.
• Ellen Wright: Nate's fifteen-year-old sister. She is self-absorbed and constantly at odds with Nate about almost everything. Nate finds her very obnoxious, and the fact that his teachers wish he was more like her aggravates him.
• Mrs. Catherine "Clara" Godfrey: Nate's ultimate nemesis, his social studies teacher. Nate spends much of his time trying to avoid her outside of class and antagonizing her in class, making up several nicknames for her.
• Mrs. Hickson: The school librarian. She is a middle-aged woman who does not tolerate insolence from anyone. She is mentioned in "Big Nate In A Class By Himself",and makes an official appearance in "Big Nate Strikes Again".
• Jenny Jenkins: Nate's classmate since grade one. She is his biggest crush—however, she despises Nate (though Nate is absolutley oblivious). Jenny is dating Artur.
• Artur Pashkov: A very intelligent and very well liked exchange student from the Republic of Belarus (see 5-7-01.) He is in Nate's class, and is Jenny Jenkins' boyfriend. Jenny's liking for Artur, and Artur's ability to beat Nate at chess, makes him arch rival to Nate. Artur was the Boys' Age-Group Chess Champion of Belarus before moving to the United States. Artur was quite modest about this, stating that Belarus is, "Very small country. Barely eleven million." Artur speaks somewhat broken English as a second language. He is very innocent, gentle, kind, and unassuming. He regards Nate as his best friend, and is generally unaware of Nate's dislike of him. He went with his father, a college professor, to Turkey, during which time Nate tried to start going out with Jenny. Turkey is not Artur's native country; his father was doing research there.
• Mr. Ken Rosa: Nate's art teacher. Mr. Rosa is a soft spoken, optimistic, and mild-mannered man. As a result, Nate enjoys a lot of freedom in art class. He also enjoys sketching pictures of his teachers. Mr. Rosa has a master's degree, but he has to work at an ice cream shop, scooping ice cream all summer long to make ends meet. His supervisor at the ice cream store is at least half his age.
• "School Picture Guy": Not only showing up every year as the school picture photographer, this character often shows up in unexpected places doing odd jobs such as a birthday clown or a school board meeting reporter. "School Picture Guy" often has some amusing nuggets of wisdom about the job he is doing, or a nugget of wisdom for whatever is on Nate's mind at the moment.
• Kelly: Nate's ex-girlfriend whom he met at soccer camp. She goes to Jefferson Middle School, and is the goalie on the girls' soccer team. Not seen since Nate broke up with her to try to start going with Jenny after Jenny broke up with her boyfriend. (Kelly was angry, with good reason, because Nate broke up with her using a note written on the back of a detention slip.) They dated from 7-10-01 to 4-11-02.
• Angie: Nate's first girlfriend. Her last appearance was after breaking up with him and getting a new boyfriend almost instantly. They dated from 7-14-97 to 2-12-98.
• Chester Budrick: A person who appears to be too old for his grade.Their baseball pitcher. Usually shown as an arm or not at all, but he appears briefly when Nate talks about losing in dodgeball in "Big Nate Strikes Again".
• Gina Hemphill-Toms: One of Nate's schoolmates and rivals. Gina is P.S. 38's resident know-it-all and over-achiever, and often finds herself in academic competition with fellow overachiever Francis. Nate and Gina tend to despise each other with a passion, viewing each others' personalities and work ethics as terrible. In recent strips, it has been hinted that Nate actually likes Gina deep down, but denies his feelings for her because he believes that he hates everything about her. Ironically, Nate's behavior toward Gina of despising her but hiding feelings for her is identical to what he thinks is his relationship with Jenny, in that he believes Jenny acts like she hates him but really likes him deep down. Of course, Nate is again oblivious to the similarity. Nate listed her as number 1 on his list of worst potential project partners. In Big Nate Strikes Again, she ruins the fleeceball team by using the name Kuddle Kittens, angering Nate. She first appeared in 1999, but looks different than the current depiction of Gina. She was once called Gina Brigham on 3-17-99.
• Cap'n Salty: A talking like pirate. His favorite hobby is catching lobsters under the sea. Cap’n Salty is a character Lincoln Pierce created exclusively for the children's website Poptropica.com, where “Big Nate Island” is one of the features. However, the only mention of Cap'n Salty in the strip itself is the restaurant "Cap'n Salty's" by the beach.
• Chief Meteorologist Wink Summers: Never seen or heard from, but Nate constantly calls him and complains whenever any part of the weather is not to his liking or if Wink's forecast is wrong. He transferred to weekend meteorologist in August, 2011. His real name is Dick Schipp.
• Spitsy: The neighborhood dog owned by Mr. Eustis, the man next door to the Wrights. Nate likes to go to the woods and hang out with Spitsy. He is "the ultimate dog nerd", for he is afraid of mailmen, eats his poop, and he had to go to the doctor when he swallowed a tennis ball to get his stomach pumped. He has a crush on Francis' cat Pickles,went to a cat tea party, and even knitted a sweater like his own bone one for a cat. He likes figure skating as much as Ellen, and gets his tongue stuck on metal poles in the winter frequently.
• Randy Betancourt: One of Nate's other rivals. In Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Randy got Nate into detention in the chess club bake sale. He threw a lemon square at Mrs. Godfrey and blamed Nate on it. Then Nate threw his dad's yogurt coconut pie at Randy. In Big Nate Strikes Again, he creates a fleeceball team called the Raptors. The day before the game, Randy ran into a table Nate was carrying and got a bloody nose. In the game, Randy stomps on Nate's foot for payback time after he grounds out. His first appearance in the comic strip was on October 31.
• Gordie: Ellen's ex-boyfriend. He shares Nate's love for the comic book 'Femme Fatality', and runs nearby comic shop Klassic Komix. In big nate On a Roll, it is revealed he has a boss named Wayne that looks like a caveman.
• Chad: He's one of Nate's good friends. Chad's appearance is a chubby kid with red hair and freckles. He is obsessed with eating and food. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself; Nate mistakens him for Todd. A smiley face is often seen on his shirt.
• Sheila Stapleton : Is a friend of Nate, Francis, Teddy, and Jenny. Hasn't been seen for a while. She had a crush on Francis.
• Coach John: He is a substitute of Coach Calhoun. He is a soccer coach of Nate. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself, Nate wears his pants [which are huge]. In a comic it is revealed that Coach John wears a toupee.
• Mr. Galvin: The science teacher. He has a crush on Greta Van Susteren.
• Mr. Staples: The math teacher.
• Ms. Clarke: The English teacher.
• Ms. La Chance: The French teacher.
• Ms. Brindle: The Life Skills teacher.
• Mrs. Lumley: A cafeteria worker.
• Mrs. Corzini: A "lunch aide."
• Principal Nichols: The Principal of P.S. 38. He is a rotund fellow and loves to eat.
• Mrs. Shipulski: Principal Nichols' secretary. She prides herself on her low BMI. Nate flatters her by calling her a cougar.
• Mrs. Czerwicki: She is a school volunteer who sits in detention to supervise the students who must be there. She reads romance novels while sitting in detention.
• Sheila: Francis' girlfriend.
• Marcus: Marcus is "the popular kid" in school, though it is difficult to understand why. He is very narcissistic, and is also a bully. Two members of his gang are Andy and Dennis.
• Ronnie Dwyer: Jenny's boyfriend from 10-14-99 to 3-25-02.
• Greg Proxmire: Jenny's boyfriend from 4-13-02 to 11-29-04.

Enslave the Mollusk

Enslave the Mollusk (ETM) is a garage band featured in Big Nate. It features Big Nate as vocalist and drummer, with best friends Francis on electric guitar and Teddy on keyboards and lyricist. EtM appears to be a rock music band, although they only have three original songs, "Hot Cross Buns," "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "I Fought the Law". Artur became lead singer in the band after singing "I Fought the Law" beautifully. They also play cover music.

Recently, Enslave the Mollusk appears to have broken up, after Artur's parents forced him to quit to focus on schoolwork and Francis and Teddy decided the band wasn't fun anymore. Nate appears to be trying to go solo.

In December 8, 2010's strip, Nate suggests that the band should come back to play at the "Under The Sea" dance coming up at their school. The power went out during the dance, though, and it is unclear if EtM has come back together or not.

Collections

Four print collections were published.

Title	Publication Date	ISBN	Publisher
Add More Babes!	1992	ISBN 0-88687-682-6	Topper Books
I Smell a Pop Quiz!	2008	ISBN 0-615-19719-1	United Media
Big Nate: From the Top	2010	ISBN 978-1-4494-0232-7	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Big Nate Out Loud	2011	ISBN 978-1-4494-0718-6	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Big Nate and Friends"	2011	ISBN 9781449420437	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Big Nate: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"	May 1, 2012	ISBN 978-0062086945	HarperCollins

In addition, there were three E-books, all from 2002: "Dibs on This Chair", "Pray for a Firedrill" and "Big Nate...Makes a Splash". This was described two years later by Lincoln as a "failed experiment".

Chapter books

Book series

1. Big Nate: In a Class by Himself (March 23, 2010)
2. Big Nate: Strikes Again (October 19, 2010)
3. Big Nate On a Roll (August 16, 2011)
4. Big Nate Goes for Broke (March 20, 2012)

Other books

1. Big Nate Boredom Busters, Super Scribbles, Cool Comix, and Lots of Laughs (April 12, 2011)

The book, Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, with selected panels from the comic strip, is the first chapter book in the Big Nate series. It was followed by Big Nate Strikes Again. Then, announced on the back of Big Nate Strikes Again, book 3, Big Nate on a Roll was released on August 16, 2011. On April 12, 2011, an activity book was released, Big Nate Boredom Buster: Super Scribbles, Cool Comix, and Lots of Laughs, and Big Nate Goes For Broke, the fourth book in the series, will be out March 20, 2012.