SATA
BoENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: DESTINED FOR AWESOMENESS
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://lincolnpeirce.com/
CITY: Portland
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 369
http://www.bignatebooks.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Peirce http://lambiek.net/artists/p/peirce_lincoln.htm http://scottnickel.blogspot.com/2009/06/20-questions-with-lincoln-peirce.html http://www.amazon.com/Big-Nate-Top-Lincoln-Peirce/dp/1449402321
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born October 23, 1963, in Ames, IA; father a college professor; married Jessica Gandolf; children: two.
EDUCATION:Attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Colby College, B.A. (art); Brooklyn College, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Cartoonist, author, and illustrator. Creator of “Big Nate” comic strip through United Features Syndicate, beginning 1991. Also taught art in New York City high schools; animator of short cartoon films.
AWARDS:Great Stone Face Book Award, 2011, Kentucky Bluegrass Award, 2012, and Garden State Children’s Book Award, 2013, all for Big Nate: In a Class by Himself; Milner Award, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, 2017; Reuben Award nomination, National Cartoonists Society, 2019, for Max and the Midnights.
WRITINGS
Comics also collected as I Smell a Pop Quiz: A Big Nate Book and Add More Babes!
Peirce’s “Big Nate” books were adapted for the stage as Big Nate: The Musical, first produced in 2013.
SIDELIGHTS
Cartoonist Lincoln Peirce wields the pen behind the “Big Nate” comic strip, which has appeared in more than 300 U.S. newspapers as well as online, and has been collected in Big Nate from the Top and Big Nate Out Loud. The eleven-year-old brainiac who stars in Peirce’s popular strip has also made appearances in several popular chapter books, among them Big Nate Strikes Again, Big Nate Goes Bananas!, and Big Nate: On a Roll. In chronicling the preteen’s comic exploits, Peirce draws on memories of his own childhood and his experience as a high-school art teacher. Reviewing Big Nate Strikes Again in Booklist, Ian Chipman dubbed the book “fun for boys,” noting that the author/illustrator’s addition of “cartoon tidbits make the pages fly past with punch lines galore.”
Peirce was born in Iowa but spent his formative years in northern New England, where he developed a talent for cartooning. After earning an art degree at Colby College, Peirce taught high school in New York City and also earned an M.F.A. at Brooklyn College. His first “Big Nate” comic strip appeared in 1991 and ran for over two decades before attracting the interest of major book publishers. After the comic was posted on the popular Poptropica website in February of 2009, however, requests to view the online comic crashed the site.
News of “Big Nate’s” popularity made it to editors at HarperCollins and resulted in Peirce’s first book contract. “One of my goals was to write a book that I would have loved to read when I was a kid,” Peirce told Portland Press Herald contributor Tom Atwell in describing Big Nate’s move to chapter books. “Kids are so visual. That is how I looked at books as a kid when I went to the library. I’d flip through the book to check out the pictures. This is a book for kids who like comics and who like a good story.”
Nate Wright, the outgoing preteen star of the comic that bears his name, has too much going to be tied down by school schedules. For him, middle-school life seems to alternate between the desperately tedious and the horribly challenging, with teachers thrown into the mix to add to the frustration. In his first graphic-novel outing, Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Nate’s belief that he is exceptional is reinforced by a fortune cookie, and although he spends his school hours hoping to discover his special talent, his only measurable success is in accumulating detentions. Big Nate Strikes Again finds Nate teamed up with insufferable straight-A student Gina Hemphill-Toms to prepare a presentation on Ben Franklin for Mrs. Godfrey’s class. The chance to help his fleeceball team win an upcoming tournament buoy’s Nate’s spirits … until he realizes that Gina is also on his team and has named it the Kuddle Kittens.
Reviewing Peirce’s first chapter book, a Publishers Weekly critic praised Nate as a “sharp-witted and unflappable protagonist” that will find fans among Peirce’s target audience of eight-to-twelve-year-olds, and School Library Journal reviewer Lora Van Marel predicted the popularity of the “laugh-out-loud” story among reluctant readers. “Peirce gets all the details of a sixth-grade boy just right,” wrote Robin L. Smith in her Horn Book review of Big Nate Strikes Again, the critic predicting that “even the most jaded middle-schooler will find much to laugh about” in Nate’s second book-length outing. Calling the same book “clever and funny,” School Library Journal critic Patty Saidenberg added that Peirce’s loosely drawn comics and well-paced text combine to “give the story a fun and carefree rhythm.”
Big Nate: I Can’t Take It finds Nate getting into more trouble in middle school. He has a contentious relationship with his teacher, Mrs. Godfrey, and he tries and fails to do well playing sports. Nate also has issues with his family. In particular, he is embarrassed by his father, whom he believes is not cool. Snow Wildsmith, a critic in Booklist, suggested: “Older children and young teens will appreciate Nate’s middle-school silliness and admire his bravery.” Nate takes part in a long-shot race for class president in Big Nate: Mr. Popularity. He also tries to drum up some athletic ability as a member of the basketball team and dreads school pictures.
In an interview with Randy Slavey, a contributor to the Roarbots website, Peirce described a 2015 addition to his “Big Nate” series called Big Nate Lives It Up. He stated: “ Big Nate Lives It Up began with a pretty simple idea: what if Nate is selected to be the ‘buddy’ for a new student? And what if that new student and Nate share almost nothing in common? That’s the jumping-off point of the story, and I think readers will enjoy some of the other details. There’s a centennial celebration for P.S. 38, some 100-year-old comics, and an epic scavenger hunt that could change the school’s fortunes quite unexpectedly.”
In Big Nate: Say Good-bye to Dork City, Nate determines to be part of a group of popular kids, led by Marcus. He leaves his old friends behind and begins doing favors for members of the group. Ultimately, Nate learns to appreciate his old friends. Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Lisa Nowlain described it as “another ‘Big Nate’ comic that readers—reluctant and voracious alike—will whisk off the shelf.”
In addition to his wildly popular “Big Nate” stories, Peirce is the creator of a number of self-illustrated, rhyming board books featuring a younger version of his comical protagonist. In Little Big Nate Draws a Blank, the tyke has a difficult time deciding what to sketch after he receives a new box of crayons, and No Nap! finds the youngster exercising his vivid imagination after reluctantly falling asleep. “The pacing and brevity of text per page keep the book light and moving, friendly to the attention spans of little readers,” a Kirkus Reviews critic stated of No Nap! Another writer in Kirkus Reviews described the former title as “a visual treat: Nate’s face is wonderfully expressive, and there’s a sweetly unpolished feeling about the drawings Nate imagines, which mimic a child’s spontaneity.”
(open new)The Nickelodeon television network adapted the “Big Nate” series for a television show that debuted in 2022. In an interview with Beth McEvoy, contributor to the News Center Maine website, Peirce commented on the adaptation, stating: “When we finally got together with Nickelodeon, it was a dream come true because they are the gold standard for TV animation for kids programming. I couldn’t be happier.” The television show finds Big Nate’s story expanding to include new scenarios. Also, in 2022, Peirce released Big Nate: Destined for Awesomeness, which was an adaptation of three of the episodes of the Nickelodeon television series. In the first story, Nate worries about what will happen to him if he is given a fifth detention, as he compares himself to a boy named Brad Gunter who disappeared after getting his fifth detention. Next, Nate tries to give his dad what he wants for his birthday, but instead puts him in financial distress. The last story finds Nate forced to face his fear of cats alongside his crush. A writer in Kirkus Reviews suggested: “Further adapting that medium back into print feels utterly unnecessary” and called the volume “redundant.”
In an interview with a contributor to the GoComics website, Peirce reflected on his thirty years creating “Big Nate” stories. He remarked: “I’m proud that Big Nate has been embraced by so many kids in recent years. It wasn’t all that long ago that people didn’t consider comics to be legitimate reading material for children. But that’s changed now, and reading comics is often a way that ‘reluctant readers’ become interested in books during elementary school. To play even a small part in encouraging kids to read is really rewarding.”(close new—more below)
With Max and the Midknights, Peirce opens a humorous new adventure series set during the Middle Ages. The title character, a sardonic, strong-willed girl, is an aspiring knight who lives in fourteenth-century Europe. Max’s guardian, Uncle Budrick, hopes the youngster will follow in his footsteps and become a troubadour. The evil King Gastley kidnaps Budrick, leading Max to bring together a group of other knight-hopefuls, who call themselves the Midknights. The rag-tag crew makes an effort to free Budrick and reason with the King. “The zippy mix of prose and comics panels rockets along with quick plotting and lots of funny medieval madcap antics,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
Battle of the Bodkins, the second installment in the series, was described as “[c]onsistently entertaining and enjoyable” by a Kirkus Reviews writer. Now attending knight school, Max and the Midknights must save the kingdom of Byjovia when a spell goes amiss and the citizens are replaced by mysterious creatures known as bodkins. “Like its predecessor, Peirce’s sophomore graphic hybrid carries on its zippy mix of fast-paced prose and visually interesting illustrations,” the Kirkus Reviews contributor observed.
(open new) The Tower of Time is the third installment in the “Max and the Midknights” series. In this volume, Mary, one of the Midnights and Max’s twin sister, is accused of stealing food and brought back to her homeland of Klunk. Though Max has been rethinking her relationship with Mary, she still rounds up her gang of Midknights and takes them on a journey from BYjovia to Klunk to save Mary. Along their route, they encounter various quirky characters, including a dragon, magicians, and a group of pirates. Max and Mary and finally reunited, and they reach the magical Tower of Time. There, they hope to travel into their past to sort out their relationship. Max and Mary hope that resolving their issues will allow them to continue helping others. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described The Tower of Time as “a pleasing wrap-up.” (close new)
Discussing his best-selling works in a Brightly blog interview, Peirce remarked, “I use the term hybrid to describe books like mine, because it suggests an equal partnership between words and pictures. Instead of marching alongside one another, the illustrations and text are weaving in and around each other. It’s almost like two musicians working on a duet until it sounds just right.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, p. 70; February 1, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of Big Nate Strikes Again, p. 78; January 1, 2014, Snow Wildsmith, review of Big Nate: I Can’t Take It!, p. 81.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, May, 2010, Karen Coats, review of Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, p. 393.
Horn Book, November-December, 2010, Robin L. Smith, review of Big Nate Strikes Again, p. 101; July-August, 2010, Robin L. Smith, review of Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, p. 118.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2010, review of Big Nate: In a Class by Himself; October 1, 2018, review of Max and the Midknights; October 15, 2019, review of Little Big Nate Draws a Blank; August 15, 2020, review of No Nap!; October 1, 2020, review of Battle of the Bodkins; January 1, 2022, review of The Tower of Time; August 15, 2022, review of Big Nate: Destined for Awesomeness.
Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME), May 30, 2010, Tom Atwell, author interview.
Publishers Weekly, April 12, 2010, review of Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, p. 49.
School Library Journal, April, 2010, Lora van Marel, review of Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, p. 166; December, 2010, Patty Saidenberg, review of Big Nate Strikes Again, p. 122; August, 2014, review of Big Nate: Mr. Popularity, p. 110; April, 2015, Lisa Nowlain, review of Big Nate: Say Good-bye to Dork City, p. 151.
Washington Post, June 27, 2010, Michael Cavna, interview with Peirce.
ONLINE
Andrews McMeel Publishing website, https://www.ampkids.com/ (August, 2017), author interview.
Brightly, https://www.readbrightly.com/ (March 1, 2021), “Author-Illustrator Lincoln Peirce on Max & the Midknights and Big Nate,” author interview.
Colby Echo, https://colbyecho.news/ (October 6, 2022), author interview.
Comics Beat, http://www.comicsbeat.com/ (October 26, 2016), Alex Dueben, author interview; (February 16, 2022), Taimur Dar, author interview.
GoComics, https://www.gocomics.com/ (January 19, 2021), author interview.
Hogan, https://www.hoganmag.com/ (February 8, 2022), Tom Heintjes, author interview.
Horn Book Online, https://www.hbook.com/ (November 23, 2020), Roger Sutton, “Lincoln Peirce Talks with Roger;” author interview.
Lincoln Peirce website, https://lincolnpeirce.com/ (January 26, 2023).
New Center Maine, https://www.newscentermaine.com/ (February 8, 2022), Beth McEvoy, author interview.
Publishers Weekly Online, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (January 8, 2019), Sally Lodge, author interview.
Random House Graphic website, https://www.rhkidsgraphic.com/ (December 7, 2020), author interview.
Roarbots, https://theroarbots.com/ (March 3, 2015), Randy Slavey, author interview.
Scribblitt, https://www.scribblitt.com/ (June 5, 2019), author interview.
ThoughtCo, https://www.thoughtco.com/ (July 3, 2019), Elizabeth Kennedy, author interview.
Washington City Paper, https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/ (May 9, 2013), Mike Rhode, “Meet a Visiting Cartoonist: A Chat with Lincoln Peirce.”
Lincoln Peirce (pronounced “purse”) is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the successful Big Nate comic strip, which has also been collected and published Big Nate comic strip collections. The strip debuted in 1991 in 135 newspapers, and currently has a client list of over 400 newspapers worldwide. Lincoln Peirce is also the author/illustrator of a series of Big Nate novels for young readers. He has also written a number of animated shorts that have appeared on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and is the creator of the Big Nate animated series, as well as a series of Big Nate activity books.
Peirce was born on October 23, 1963 in the city of Ames, Iowa. His family moved East in 1964, and Peirce grew up in Durham, New Hampshire. He developed a fascination with comic strips at a young age and often cites Charles Schulz’s Peanuts as his greatest inspiration. At Colby College in Waterville, Maine, he studied art & art history.
After completing the Big Nate novel series in 2016, Peirce began work on Max & the Midknights, a comedic adventure story set in the Middle Ages. It is the first in a projected three-book series published by Crown Books for Young Readers. Max & the Midknights was published on January 8, 2019, and went on to spend sixteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, peaking at #2. The second book in the series, Max & the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins was released on December 1, 2020.
Lincoln Peirce
USA flag (b.1963)
Lincoln Peirce is an American cartoonist who writes the comic strip Big Nate. Peirce is from Portland, Maine, lives with his wife and two children, and occasionally gives lectures to students about cartoon creating.He studied art at Colby College in Maine were he began cartooning. He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture before teaching art and coaching baseball at a New York highschool for 3 years. He currently plays hockey with "an old men's league" and describes it as his best sport as a child.
Genres: Children's Fiction
New Books
September 2022
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Release the Hounds!
(Big Nate Comics, book 27)November 2022
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Prank You Very Much
(Big Nate: Destined for Awesomeness, book 2)February 2023
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Nailed It!
(Big Nate Comics, book 28)
Series
Big Nate
1. In a Class by Himself (2010)
2. Strikes Again (2010)
3. On a Roll (2011)
4. Goes for Broke (2012)
5. Flips Out (2013)
6. In the Zone (2014)
7. Lives It Up (2015)
8. Blasts Off (2016)
The Boy with the Biggest Head in the World (2010)
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Big Nate Comics
1. From the Top (2010)
2. Out Loud (2011)
3. Big Nate and Friends (2011)
4. Makes the Grade (2012)
5. Makes a Splash (2013)
6. Game On! (2013)
7. I Can't Take It! (2013)
8. Great Minds Think Alike (2014)
9. The Crowd Goes Wild! (2014)
10. Dibs on This Chair (2013)
11. Big Nate's Greatest Hits (2015)
12. Say Good-bye to Dork City (2015)
13. Welcome to My World (2015)
14. Thunka, Thunka, Thunka (2016)
15. Revenge of the Cream Puffs (2016)
16. What's a Little Noogie Between Friends? (2016)
17. A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie (2017)
18. Silent But Deadly (2018)
19. Goes Bananas (2018)
20. Payback Time! (2019)
21. Hug It Out! (2019)
22. Blow the Roof Off! (2020)
23. The Gerbil Ate My Homework (2020)
24. In Your Face! (2021)
25. Aloha! (2021)
26. Beware of Low-Flying Corn Muffins (2022)
27. Release the Hounds! (2022)
28. Nailed It! (2023)
Pray for a Fire Drill (2013)
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Big Nate Onmibus
Epic Big Nate (2016)
Double Trouble (2018)
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Big Nate Compilation
1. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (2012)
2. Here Goes Nothing (2012)
3. Genius Mode (2013)
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Little Big Nate
Draws A Blank (2019)
No Nap! (2020)
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Max and the Midknights
1. Max and the Midknights (2019)
2. Battle of the Bodkins (2020)
3. The Tower of Time (2022)
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Big Nate: Destined for Awesomeness
1. Destined for Awesomeness (2022)
2. Prank You Very Much (2022)
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Collections
No Worries! (2023)
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Non fiction series
Big Nate Non Fiction
Big Nate Boredom Buster (2011)
Big Nate Doodlepalooza (2013)
Big Nate Super Scribbler (2015)
Big Nate Puzzlemania (2016)
Lincoln Peirce Talks with Roger
by Roger Sutton
Nov 23, 2020 | Filed in Authors & Illustrators
Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book. To receive Notes, sign up here.
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In a sequel to Max & the Midknights, Lincoln Peirce’s Max & the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins provides Max and her trusty companions with a truly spooky threat (think Jordan Peele’s Us) to the kingdom they restored in the first book, Byjovia. Yes, that gave me pause too, but go with it.
Roger Sutton: The thing I love most about the Max & the Midknights books is there is such an improvisational quality to the narratives. Something unexpected happens; something unexpected happens again. But you don’t ever feel jerked around — it feels very natural. How do you create that spontaneity? Do you know the twists and turns as you go?
LP: I think it’s a function of the way I write these books, which is: I make them up as I go along. I submit the chapters to Phoebe Yeh, my editor, one at a time, and I honestly don’t necessarily know earlier in the book where I’ll end up later. It’s a little bit stressful at times [Ed. note: for Phoebe too, I’m guessing!], but I find that I’m really energized by it. I do try to make sure that each twist has a certain logic to it. By the time I’m three-quarters of the way through, I usually have a good idea of the end. But I like not necessarily knowing my path between Point A and Point J.
RS: Did you ever find yourself thinking Uh-oh, I’ve hit a dead end, and you have to go back?
LP: I never get too far down the road, and I’m grateful for that, because as you know, when you write books that are part of a series, there’s a certain timeframe you’re working in, and you don’t have the luxury of making the major misstep that would necessitate going back and doing major rewrites. On a couple of occasions, yeah, I’d get a few pages in and think This is not really necessary for the story. It may be an interesting side note, but when I boil down the story to its elements, is this really going to make it better? And if the answer is no, then I move on. Something that supports me is my background as a comic strip creator. In a comic strip there’s a certain improvisational quality, too. Charles Schulz believed you’re essentially telling the same jokes over and over again, but trying to keep it fresh every day. I find that translates well, for me, into writing books. It’s a space I’m comfortable in.
RS: In writing a comic strip, how far ahead does a person generally work? In this case, you’re sending Phoebe the chapters one at a time, but they’re all going to come together before the public sees it. But with a comic strip, you’re what, a month ahead?
LP: I can be more ahead than that because Big Nate is not a topical comic strip. I don’t have to work close to deadline in order to comment on actual current events. I’m more like two and a half months ahead of my publication dates. I have, at times, been as far as six months ahead.
RS: That must be nice.
LP: I long for those days.
RS: I get my book reviews done two days in advance and I feel like I’ve earned a vacation. When you’re dealing with a small slice of time in each story, does it make it easier to establish a rhythm going forward? Even though you don’t know what Big Nate or the Midknights are going to be doing fifty pages, or fifty strips, down the line, you get the confidence that they’re going someplace useful.
LP: Absolutely. I agree with that 100 percent. You used the word rhythm, which I love. I use that word all the time, because like almost everyone of my generation, I grew up loving Peanuts. For most of Peanuts’s run, it was a standard four-panel comic strip. I grew up reading those strips, and the rhythm of those four panels got hard-wired into me. When I do the books, it’s a different sort of rhythm, but I still feel like it’s an essential part. It’s not about the number of panels, but it’s about the decisions I make. What’s going to be in an illustration? What’s in a speech bubble versus being laid out in a paragraph?
RS: That was my next question. I don’t even know what we call this book. It’s not a graphic novel. It’s not a comic strip. Whatever the hell it is — I think the improvisational quality that I admire about the story I also see in that bouncing between pictures and text. How do you know where a joke is going to land? How do you know what to convey — you have speech balloons, you have pictures, and you have narrative text. How do you divvy that up?
LP: I have tried, Roger, many times to find a way to explain it, and I’m not sure I’ve ever arrived at an explanation that satisfies me, but again I go back to the rhythm. When I’m working, I’m constantly rereading what I’ve written. I’m saying it in my head, and there are some lines, some words, some phrases, that I think, That clearly needs to be in a speech bubble and not in quotes in a line of text. Although I can’t really explain why, it seems obvious to me in the moment. I’m also aware that I’m writing for an audience who presumably would prefer to see funny things depicted visually as opposed to just having them explained. It’s a lot funnier for a nine-year-old reader to see someone get hit in the face with a pie than it is to read about it. Some decisions are easy ones, and others are a little more — I guess they just defy easy explanation. I feel them, is the best way I can put it.
RS: And it’s all one creative stream? As you’re actually writing, are you making those divisions among form?
LP: Yeah. I write them out in little sketchbooks, little Moleskines. I make notations, or I draw speech bubbles — I don’t actually draw any pictures at the early stages, I just focus on the writing, and I’ll make an indication that this is going to be inside a panel, this is going to be a paragraph. I’m thinking about those divisions right from the start.
RS: What do you call this form?
LP: I call them hybrids. In bookstores, mine are inevitably in the graphic novel section, and I’m happy to be in that company. There’s such a variety — there can be a book that’s an illustrated novel, but the art is perhaps on the cartoony side. And then there are others, like Raina Telgemeier’s books, which are clearly classic graphic novels. One day I would like to do a straight graphic novel to see what it’s like, but I do feel like I’ve pitched my tent in my own little place where I’m kind of in the middle.
RS: Are you ever tempted to go the other way and do a picture book?
LP: I’ve done a couple of Little Big Nate projects, where Nate is just a toddler — those are twelve-page picture books. I was proud of them, but I didn’t necessarily enjoy the process as much as I thought I would. I think it had to do with wanting there to be more variety and more of the twists and turns in the story. It didn’t scratch my itch the way a comic strip does, and it didn’t scratch my itch the way a novel does. It’s something I wasn’t thoroughly accustomed to, and I’m happy to have tried it, but I don’t think I’m going to revisit that any time soon.
RS: You mentioned nine-year-olds as your audience, so let’s take that as a sweet spot. What was nine-year-old Lincoln reading? What was the mix involved there?
LP: By age nine, I had discovered what is now one of my favorite series of that era — the Great Brain books by John D. Fitzgerald. I was probably just out of my Matt Christopher phase, those sports books.
RS: He still writes. Dead for years, but he still publishes books.
LP: I had read some of the all-time greats by then — Charlotte’s Web, the classics. I think I was about nine when I read Old Yeller, a book that was foundational for me. And I read a lot of comic books. I was fascinated with newspaper comics always. Those Peanuts reprint books, at that time, only cost around fifty cents each, a lot of bang for your buck.
RS: Yeah, those always went with us on car trips, I remember. The children would pass them among ourselves.
LP: Exactly.
RS: One thing that you have to do in a novel — hybrids, as they are, are still novels — is create characters for whom we have empathy. When I started the first Midknights book, I thought It’s going to be like Monty Python; I don’t think I can stand it, because I hate that kind of humor. But then I really came to care about these kids, so I had an emotional investment in it. And at the same time, you had to give me a story with a beginning, a middle, and end, which a comic strip doesn’t have to do.
LP: I disagree. A comic strip does have to. I think about that in comics all the time. Comics are small stories, but I see them as very real stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Not just in terms of a daily strip, which is a story made very small, but in terms of story arcs that might play out over the course of a week or two. But I know what you mean, in terms of there being a clear difference between the two formats.
RS: You have a lot of elements and levels of humor that you have to keep going at once. Do you think that’s just part of your gift as a writer, or is it something you have to work on? Do you have to look at that balance as you go, or does it come out naturally?
LP: That’s a good question — I haven’t really thought too much about it. You mentioned empathy earlier, and I believe that’s a key component. Something I do think about a lot with the comic strips is the balancing act that comes with creating a character who behaves in ways that in the real world are not necessarily appealing — they might be outrageous — and yet your job is to make this character empathetic and likable and identifiable. As far as the books go, foundationally, when I started to introduce the characters in the first Midknights book, empathy was definitely something that was at the forefront, because I wanted it to be clear that these young people were traveling paths that they did not necessarily want to be on. And to do it in a lighthearted way, a comedic way, because I wanted the book to be funny. But the characters have this struggle to define Who am I going to be and what do I want to do with my life? in a time when a kid did not necessarily have much agency at all, or any, in terms of choosing a path. So right at the start, Max is clear: Max is a troubadour who doesn’t want to be a troubadour. And then we meet Kevyn…
RS: First we find out Max is a girl, though. We think he’s a boy who doesn’t want to be a troubadour.
LP: Correct. That was a big part of it for me.
RS: Fooled me!
LP: But I didn’t want the books to be so much about the fact that Max was a girl — I didn’t want that to be the subject of the books. In a way, I wanted Max’s gender to end up being essentially irrelevant. I also wanted to subvert expectations, because I knew that up to that point in my working life, I was known for making very boy-centric stories.
RS: That’s exactly what I thought I was reading when I started the first Max book.
LP: That’s good, Roger! That’s what I was going for. I left no Easter eggs, no hints, either on the cover or in the first fifty pages, to suggest that Max isn’t a boy. I knew my typical nine-year-old reader would assume Max was a boy. I’m not really interested in the idea that there are “girl books” and “boy books” or any of that stuff — I don’t really believe in all that. I just thought it would be fun and an interesting challenge for me to have the point of entry into this story be one thing, and then fifty pages in, have the reader realize, “This is not what I thought was going to happen."
RS: Right. It’s interesting you picked fifty pages in to have that happen, because everything’s in motion, readers are already sucked in, and then we have this revelation — but there’s still tons to get accomplished before the story can end.
LP: Correct. Thank you, Roger. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
RS: There was a book about thirty years ago — it won the Carnegie Medal in Britain — called The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, which was about this awful kid at school, who is getting in scrapes left and right and causing trouble and mischief, and it’s very entertaining, and it’s only on the last page you find out you’ve been reading about a girl all along. It’s brilliant.
LP: That's fascinating.
RS: Here, it was woven into the story. It wasn’t the whole point of the thing. It wasn’t a girl-power story either.
LP: Exactly. It’s clear early on that when Max learns girls aren’t allowed to be knights, it’s a surprise to her. It’s not as if she has been trudging through her life up to that point, “Ugh, I’m a girl.” She’s been trudging through her life up to that point, “Ugh, I’m a troubadour."
RS: How do you keep going? I don’t want to give anything away, but we’re left in the second volume with another discovery about Max that I assume you’ll pick up in the third book. How do you stop this kind of series from becoming, “and here are more adventures of the Midknights”?
LP: In this case, there are only going to be three volumes in the series. There are no plans to go to Max book seven. I think that’s helpful. I wrote the first one thinking it was going to be a one-off, and it would have worked perfectly well if it was. But I found that I just really enjoyed the character, and felt that there was a lot more I could do with Max and with these stories, but within reason. I did eight of the Big Nate novels, and I’m happy and proud of all of them, but by the time I got to the seventh and the eighth, I was on fumes. I was thinking, I don’t want to repeat myself. We’ve all watched the TV show or the book series where you get to the later ones and your heart sort of sinks a little bit and you think, I wish they had stopped after season five. Three is going to be a really good number for the Max series. I’m almost done writing the third one now, and it feels good. It feels like there’s a really logical endpoint to this. I’m happy with it. I don’t know if you have an example that springs to mind, Roger [Ed. note: Schitt’s Creek], but the one that springs to mind for me is the crushing disappointment I felt when I read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was such a formative book for me, just a magical, magical book. I remember hearing, probably through my mother, who worked in the elementary school library, that there was going to be another Charlie book, and I was just over the moon. And then reading it, I felt like the air went out of the balloon.
RS: In Gypsy, the musical, Mama Rose says to the young Gypsy Rose Lee that the key to being a good stripper is to “make 'em beg for more, and then don't give it to them!" In the case of a book, when there isn’t a sequel that you can run to, you have to take the story into your head. And that stays with you. There’s no disappointment possible.
LP: That’s interesting. Getting back to the comic strips, there’s the classic comic strip by Al Capp, Li’l Abner. For twenty, twenty-five years, one of the running themes was Daisy Mae going after Li’l Abner, trying to get him to marry her. Finally, in 1952, Al Capp caved, and they were married. And almost immediately he realized I’ve made a horrible mistake, but he couldn’t undo it. For the rest of his life, he said, I wish I had not done that. So yeah, that whole don’t give them what they want thing is a fascinating dynamic in terms of storytelling.
RS: You'll have one last chance with the third book to leave us wanting more.
LP: I hope I can.
Lincoln Peirce is well-known for the Big Nate series, which began as a comic strip in 1991 and has transformed into a successful book series and an upcoming Nickelodeon television show. Last year, he released a new project: Max & the Midknights; this year, he’s back with the second book in this trilogy: Max & the Midknight: Battle of the Bodkins. Brightly had the pleasure of speaking with Peirce about Max, Nate, the roles gender and identity play in tween novels, and what’s next for these lovable characters.
In the first book in the Max & the Midknights series, Max remained gender neutral until people read the book. Can you tell us why it was important to you to create a heroine and to not tease her gender with the cover art and book description?
That came about as a result of a conversation I’d had a few years earlier with three friends – Jeff Kinney, Dav Pilkey, and Stephan Pastis. We were speaking about the fact that in the children’s book market, all of us had become known for creating stories featuring pre-adolescent boys as protagonists. When we did bookstore events, the kids in attendance were overwhelmingly male. And of course, all four of us are middle-aged men. At a certain point in the conversation, someone posed the question: What if one of us wrote a book with a female protagonist? I thought to myself, “I’d like to try that” – not because I’m particularly interested in the notion that there are “girl books” and “boy books.” I reject that premise. I just thought it would be fun – and a challenge – to subvert readers’ expectations. I knew, based on the fact that I’d written the boy-centric Big Nate books, that just about everyone who picked up a copy of Max & the Midknights would assume Max was a boy. I didn’t want them to focus on Max’s gender, but on her dilemma – she’s living the life of an apprentice troubadour while dreaming of becoming a knight. That’s why I made her name and appearance gender neutral, and why I waited nearly 50 pages to reveal the fact that Max is a girl. I didn’t want to write a book in which her gender is the main issue; I wanted to write a book in which her gender is ultimately irrelevant.
The second book, Max & the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins, deals a bit more explicitly with questions of identity: Max’s identity as an aspiring knight, first and foremost, but also the idea that people might withhold or disguise their identities for any number of reasons. Max is a kid who’s accustomed to people jumping to conclusions about her identity. That made her the perfect character to drive the story in Battle of the Bodkins. Everyone knows by now that Max is a girl, but that hasn’t necessarily made her path any smoother. And it doesn’t mean that the identities of other characters are always what they appear to be.
Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
by Lincoln Peirce
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What is it about Max that makes her relatable to both tween boys and girls?
It’s fun to read stories about characters whose lives are more eventful than our own, and Max certainly has a pretty interesting life. But a story becomes even more compelling when the characters we’re spending time with are everyday people with identifiable strengths and vulnerabilities. Max has no extraordinary powers – she’s not a superhero or an alien or a kid with magical abilities. In fact, she’s filled with many of the same insecurities as a typical 10-year-old. I’d like to think that, in that sense, she seems authentic to readers. Kids enjoy finding themselves in stories, and even though parts of Max’s life are exotic, it’s easy for young readers to see themselves in her.
At the beginning of Battle of the Bodkins, Max is suffering a crisis of confidence. She wonders if she has what it takes to become a knight, and she compares herself to Sedgewick, one of her Knight School classmates. We’ve all been there! I’m pretty sure that most tweens, whether boys or girls, know what it’s like to feel resentful of a more accomplished peer. Max certainly does, and during Battle of the Bodkins she can be peevish, vain, short-tempered, and snarky. She also has many moments of courage, loyalty, valor, and selflessness. She’s a mixed bag, which I think makes her much more relatable than a character who either succeeds at everything or fails relentlessly.
How do you use illustrations to support the text of a middle grade novel?
I don’t think of illustrations as supporting the text; I see them as part of the text. I use the term hybrid to describe books like mine, because it suggests an equal partnership between words and pictures. Instead of marching alongside one another, the illustrations and text are weaving in and around each other. It’s almost like two musicians working on a duet until it sounds just right. That’s why I would describe myself as a rhythm writer. There’s a definite rhythm that I strive for on each page, but it’s hard to pin down exactly why one piece of dialogue works as part of the text, while another line simply has to be featured in a speech bubble.
Some pieces of editorial insight are cliches, but that doesn’t make them any less true – like “show, not tell.” I think about that one all the time. In Battle of the Bodkins, there’s a lot of action. I could try to write a vivid description of what it’s like for Max to fall into a crater in the Pits of Doom or, earlier in the book, to be swallowed by a giant swamp worm. But it’s far more impactful – and fun for the reader – if I present those events visually. Similarly, moments of humor can become far more memorable if a joke is reinforced by the facial expressions and body language of the characters involved.
I also think it’s important for the style of the illustrations to match the tenor and tone of the text. I consider myself only a fair to middling visual artist, but the clean, simple cartooning style I’ve developed over the years is a good fit for the comedic nature of a book like Battle of the Bodkins. A more realistic or atmospheric approach wouldn’t be as effective.
You’re well-known for the Big Nate series, how are Nate and Max similar? How are they different?
Let’s start with the similarities. They’re about the same age – Max is 10 and Nate is 11. Both are bold and decisive, and both are leaders. They are optimists. Each has a bumbling but lovable father figure; for Nate, it’s his actual dad, and for Max, it’s Uncle Budrick. And they both have certain qualities that make them unique among their peers. In Max’s case, she is skilled in the knightly arts. Nate’s skills apply to a different kind of art – he is an aspiring cartoonist and storyteller. And finally, both characters are clearly good people whose hearts are in the right place. Any difficulties they find themselves in are never the result of their acting out of malice or spite.
But they diverge in many ways. Nate has a much bigger ego than Max and is convinced of his own exceptionality. He’s older than Max is, but not as emotionally mature. He’s impulsive and impatient – character traits that do not serve him well in middle school. Max, on the other hand, has a level of self-awareness that eludes Nate. She is far more responsible; in Battle of the Bodkins, she must make decisions that will impact the safety and security of an entire kingdom. She’s also independent and uncommonly self-reliant for a child of her age – one gets the feeling that Uncle Budrick might fall apart without her. And above all, Max is a protector. She understands that the job of a knight is to shield others from harm, and she embraces this role. Nate is the star of his own life, but his adventures are inevitably low-stakes events. Max, on the other hand, frequently deals with high-stakes, life-or-death conflicts. She is truly heroic.
What’s next for Nate and Max?
I wrote Max & the Midknights as a one-off, but I ended up enjoying the experience so much that I decided to turn it into a series. Book 2, Max & the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins, will be published on December 1. And I’m already well into writing Book 3, Max & the Midknights: The Tower of Time, which will conclude the series. The story has been optioned by Nickelodeon, and development is underway for an eventual animated TV show and/or movie. I think Max would make a great show. There are countless stories waiting to be told about the residents of the kingdom of Byjovia!
Big Nate continues to appear in newspapers as a daily comic strip; it will celebrate its 30th birthday in January. New comic collections are published twice a year – the next one is called Big Nate: In Your Face. Perhaps the biggest news is that, after many years of false starts and dead ends, a Big Nate animated TV show is coming to Nickelodeon in the summer of 2021. This will help Nate reach a new generation of readers/viewers and might even inspire me to write and illustrate more Big Nate novels. So, there’s a lot to look forward to!
Lincoln Peirce
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Lincoln Peirce
Lincoln Peirce.jpg
Born October 23, 1963 (age 59)
Ames, Iowa, U.S.
Education Colby College (BA)
Brooklyn College (MFA)
Occupation Cartoonist, animator
Known for Big Nate comic strip
(1991–present)
Spouse Jessica Gandolf
Lincoln Peirce (born October 23, 1963) (pronounced "purse") is an American cartoonist and animator, best known as the creator of the successful Big Nate comic strip and as the author/illustrator of a series of Big Nate novels for young readers.[1] He has also written a number of animated shorts that have appeared on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Peirce is the creator of the animated series Big Nate, which premiered on the Paramount+ streaming service.[2]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
3 Big Nate
4 Max and the Midknights
5 References
6 External links
Early life
Peirce was born on October 23, 1963 in the city of Ames, Iowa of French descent. His family moved east in 1964, and Peirce grew up in Durham, New Hampshire. He developed a fascination with comic strips at a young age and often cites Charles Schulz's Peanuts as his greatest inspiration. At Colby College in Waterville, Maine, he studied art and art history. During his four years at Colby, he produced a weekly comic strip called Third Floor, featuring an ensemble cast of student and faculty characters. From 1985 to 1987, he studied at Brooklyn College in New York, where he earned an MFA in studio art. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and then worked for three years at Xavier High School in New York City, where he was the art teacher and baseball coach.
Career
Peirce is the creator of the comic strip Big Nate. The strip debuted in 1991 in 135 newspapers, and currently has a client list of over 400 newspapers worldwide. Big Nate is also available online at gocomics.com, where in 2019 it was the site's second most-viewed feature, ranking behind only Calvin & Hobbes. The popular children's website poptropica.com has included Big Nate since 2009. In 2010, Peirce wrote the first of eight Big Nate novels for young readers. Published by HarperCollins, each book in the series was a New York Times bestseller. In 2011, Andrews McMeel Publishing began a series of Big Nate compilations. The series consists of 22 books to date and every one of them has been on the New York Times bestseller list. Under the AMP! Comics for Kids imprint, twenty collections have been released. Epic Big Nate, a coffee table book celebrating the strip's first 25 years, was published in 2016. Big Nate books appear in 33 different languages and have sold over 20 million copies.
Peirce has also written for television, contributing to Cartoon Network's shorts program and Nickelodeon's Random Cartoons. He created two Uncle Gus stories ("For The Love of Monkeys" and "Not So Fast") for Cartoon Network, and later wrote a series of 2-minute shorts called The Brothers Pistov for the short-lived series Sunday Pants. At Nickelodeon, Peirce wrote and storyboarded "Super John Doe Junior," about the son of a beloved crimefighter who has inherited none of his father's super powers.
Big Nate
Main article: Big Nate
Big Nate debuted in newspapers on January 7, 1991. The strip's main character is Nate Wright, an irrepressible sixth grader with a native and inflated sense of his own greatness. Peirce has said that Big Nate, which featured only six characters when it started, originated as a "domestic humor" strip, and that he intended to focus on Nate's family life. Soon, however, Peirce realized that "the gags I enjoyed writing most were the school jokes. Nate's life in middle school was where all the funny stuff was happening." Nate's school, P.S. 38, became the narrative center of the strip, and Peirce has added dozens of characters to the cast of classmates and teachers during the strip's run. Among the recurring characters are:[3]
Francis and Teddy, Nate's closest friends
Gina, an annoying teacher's pet
Chad, a lovable and guileless sidekick
Dee Dee, president of the Drama Club
Mrs. Godfrey, Nate's social studies teacher and nemesis
Mr. Rosa, a kind-hearted but overworked art teacher
Peirce describes Big Nate as a "modest success" for its first 19 years of existence. The beginning of the novel series introduced Big Nate to a generation of young readers and enhanced the comic strip's profile. The novels include:
Big Nate: In a Class by Himself (2010)
Big Nate Strikes Again (2010)
Big Nate On a Roll (2011)
Big Nate Goes for Broke (2012)
Big Nate Flips Out (2013)
Big Nate In the Zone (2014)
Big Nate Lives It Up (2015)
Big Nate Blasts Off (2016)
In May 2013 Big Nate: the Musical had its world premiere at Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo, Maryland. The music was written by Christopher Youstra, with lyrics by Christopher Youstra and Jason Loewith.[4]
On February 19, 2020, a Big Nate animated series was announced to be greenlit, with Peirce serving as a consultant, beginning with the 26-episode Season 1.[5][6] Originally planned to premiere on Nickelodeon, and developed by Mitch Watson, the series instead debuted on February 17, 2022 on the Paramount+ streaming service.[2] The series eventually premiered on Nickelodeon on September 5, 2022.
Max and the Midknights
After completing the Big Nate novel series in 2016, Peirce began work on Max & the Midknights, a comedic adventure story set in the Middle Ages. It is the first in a projected three-book series published by Crown Books[7] for Young Readers. Max & the Midknights was published on January 8, 2019, and went on to spend sixteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, peaking at #2. The second book in the series, Max & the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins was released on December 1, 2020. The third and final book in the series, Max & the Midknights: The Tower of Time,[8] was released on March 1, 2022.[9] Similarly to Big Nate, on November 16, 2021, Max & the Midknights has been greenlit for an animated series on Nickelodeon.[10]
Lincoln Peirce (pronounced "purse") is a cartoonist/writer and New York Times bestselling author of the hilarious Big Nate book series (www.bignatebooks.com), now published in twenty-five countries worldwide and available as ebooks and audiobooks and as an app, Big Nate: Comix by U! He is also the creator of the comic strip Big Nate. It appears in over three hundred U.S. newspapers and online daily at www.gocomics.com/bignate. Lincoln's boyhood idol was Charles Schulz of Peanuts fame, but his main inspiration for Big Nate has always been his own experience as a sixth grader. Just like Nate, Lincoln loves comics, ice hockey, and Cheez Doodles (and dislikes cats, figure skating, and egg salad). His Big Nate books have been featured on Good Morning America and in the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Washington Post. He has also written for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Lincoln lives with his wife and two children in Portland, Maine.
10 Things About 'Big Nate' Creator Lincoln Peirce
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By Elizabeth Kennedy
Updated on July 03, 2019
Lincoln Peirce (pronounced "purse") is the author of eight popular Big Nate middle-school books based on a comic strip series with the same name.
Peirce is also the creator of a "Big Nate Island" in the virtual world of Poptropica, and Big Nate, The Musical.
When he finished the Big Nate series in 2016, Peirce says he intended to write more books for the same audience. His book Max and the Midknights was released in January 2019. He is also involved with the creation of puzzle books and the world's longest comic book created by a team.
10 Interesting Facts About Lincoln Peirce
Birth: Lincoln Peirce was born on October 23, 1963, in Ames, Iowa. Yes, his last name really is spelled “Peirce” rather than the usual “Pierce.” It is pronounced “Purse.”
Childhood: Peirce grew up in Durham, New Hampshire. He first became interested in comic strips when he was 7 or 8 years old. He produced his first set of comic strips featuring the same character, Super Jimmy, when he was in fourth or fifth grade. Although the character is not based on his brother, the name “Big Nate” in his present comic strips and books is the nickname he called his older brother Jonathan when they were kids.
Early Inspirations: As a child, Peirce was inspired by the Peanuts comic strips of Charles Schultz. The Phantom Tollbooth and The Great Brain are among the children’s books that had an impact on him.
Education: Peirce was educated at Colby College in Waterville, Maine and earned a graduate degree from Brooklyn College in New York.
Becoming a Cartoonist: While he spent his first three years after graduation as a high school art teacher, Peirce continued to work on developing his comic strip “Neighborhood Comics.” “Neighborhood Comics” became “Big Nate” after an editor at United Media suggested he concentrate on one character. The character he chose was Nate and the comic strip that was accepted for syndication became “Big Nate.”
Lincoln Peirce is Friends with Jeff Kinney, Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: When Jeff Kinney was a college student and an aspiring cartoonist, he became a fan of the Big Nate comics and wrote a letter to Peirce. Kinney shared his own desire to become a cartoonist and asked for advice. Peirce replied and he and Kinney corresponded for several years. After Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and series became so successful, publishers became interested in more middle-grade books that combined words and comics. Kinney and Peirce reconnected and Kinney opened doors that led to Peirce’s Big Nate becoming a part of the kids’ site Poptropica and his getting a contract to write a series of funny Big Nate novels for HarperCollins.
There Are More Than Eight Big Nate Books: In addition to publishing the Big Nate funny middle-grade novels, HarperCollins has published several books of Peirce’s “Big Nate” newspaper comic strips, as well as Big Nate activity books for kids. Andrews McMeel Publishing has published numerous compilations of Peirce’s "Big Nate" newspaper comic strips. Among them are Big Nate: Say Good-bye to Dork City and Big Nate’s Greatest Hits, both published in 2015.
Lincoln Peirce Draws His Cartoons by Hand: Unlike many other cartoonists who take advantage of technology in creating their work, Peirce does almost all of his by hand. He creates all original drawings with ink on bristol board and does all of the lettering by hand for both his comic strip and his books.
Peirce Loves Writing About Middle School: In numerous interviews, Peirce has cited his many memories of middle school. “I just remember middle school incredibly well. … I think those are pretty vivid years for a lot of us. It seems as if every day you either experience some triumph or some crushing humiliation.’”
Lincoln Peirce Loves Working from Home: Peirce, along with his wife and two children live in Portland, Maine. He delights in being able to work from home and spend time with his family. His "Big Nate" comic strip is syndicated in more than 300 newspapers and can be viewed online at GOCOMICS.
Q & A with Lincoln Peirce
By Sally Lodge | Jan 08, 2019
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After writing and illustrating eight novels about irrepressible sixth grader Big Nate, Lincoln Peirce takes a different thematic and temporal tack in his latest fictional outing. Due this month from Crown with a 150,000-copy first printing, Max & the Midknights centers on a 10-year-old who begrudgingly serves as a troubadour’s apprentice, aspiring instead to be a knight in the medieval kingdom of Byjovia. When the troubadour, Uncle Budrick, is kidnapped by the cruel King Gastley, Max and a band of intrepid adventurers—the Midknights—embark on a quest to rescue Budrick and restore Byjovia to its former glory. Peirce talked with PW about venturing into the Middle Ages with his would-be knight, his ongoing Big Nate comic strip, and what his creative future might hold.
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Moving from Big Nate’s contemporary world to the 14th century is a significant leap! What inspired your choice of setting for Max & the Midknights?
When I stopped writing Big Nate novels after doing eight, I took a little break and then began casting around for an idea for something different. Years ago, I had fiddled around with a kind of spoof story on The Sword in the Stone, and I dug that out. I remembered that I’d enjoyed working on it, but the story had never gone anywhere. It was an upbeat spoof about a boy named Conrad who doesn’t realize that he’s destined to be king.
Did Conrad morph into Max?
Not exactly. As I reread the story, I realized I was less interested in the Sword in the Stone aspect, and more interested in a medieval adventure with a comedic twist. I started working on the story again and pushed the Conrad character into the margins to create a new protagonist. Actually, the title, Max & the Midknights, came to me first, and I really liked it, so I went from there.
After publishing eight Big Nate novels, was it a challenge to face a clean slate as you created Max’s story?
It was very exciting, but a little daunting too. From a drawing standpoint, it’s always a challenge to design a new character and figure out what he or she will look like and how they are going to move. I have to consistently teach and remind myself how to draw the character, while with Big Nate’s character, who was so familiar to me, there was no danger that the drawings would change over the course of book. With Max, I had to be very diligent. I was telling a story in a different time period and was telling what is first and foremost an adventure story, which is something I hadn’t done before. The Big Nate novels have plenty of action, but they aren’t adventure stories. I wanted Max & the Midknights to be an old-fashioned, almost quest-like story.
Once I knew the story I wanted to tell, I got very excited about it, and really enjoyed diving into researching the historical aspects—what the architecture and the characters’ clothing might have looked like. It was not a deep dive, but it was really interesting and fun.
What, from your perspective, is the intrinsic and enduring appeal of medieval times and heroes to young readers?
I’m not exactly sure, though it’s something I have thought about a lot. It’s a period that many people become intrigued by as children. In my case, I became aware of the Robin Hood story at a very young age. I remember watching a Looney Tune cartoon where Daffy Duck was Robin Hood—and that really imprinted itself on me. And then, when I was eight or nine, I stumbled upon The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. I was totally enchanted by the swashbuckling element of the story, and the idea that action and lighthearted comedy can coexist so happily. I watched that movie again recently and realized there’s something I really love about that combination of humor and medieval times.
Your biographical sketch in the book notes that the illustrations in Max employ “the language of comics.” What does that mean to you?
To me, it means that the visuals are working in concert with the text. There is a progression to the panels, from up-and-down and from side-to-side. You see beads of sweat, lightbulbs going off, and of course speech balloons. All of these were invented on comics pages.
Despite your new book’s departure in setting and genre, the pages echo the look of the Big Nate novels, featuring a similar balance of words and pictures. How do you describe that format?
“Hybrid” is the word I usually use. The books I’ve written are not pure graphic novels, since they include text that is separate from the art. But they are also not illustrated books, in which an illustration would sit just as well on page 55 as it would on page 56. I like using a comics format that goes back and forth with the text—it’s a fun challenge to make them work together seamlessly. This is a format I like reading and I like creating. Again, hybrid says it best. When I visit schools and stores, I often see my books on the graphic novels shelf—and that’s fine with me. But in my own mind there is a distinction. I do love graphic novels, and someday I’d like to write a straight graphic novel.
You’ve blogged that, though you’ve stopped creating Big Nate novels, your syndicated Big Nate comic strips will continue to appear for as long as you’re able to hold a pen. Why the certainty?
I grew up reading and loving comics, and creating comics has such a hold on me. I think if you ask any cartoonist around my age how they first became interested in comics, they will start talking about Peanuts and how important that strip was to them. I am no different. Charles Schulz was hugely influential to me, and when I talk about falling in love with comics, more specifically, I fell in love with the rhythm of Schulz’s four-panel format in his daily comics.
Did you gravitate toward that same format yourself?
Yes, when I began my own comics, I made them four panels. When you’re writing comic strips, you have to figure out how the dialogue is going to play out over four panels. If you decide what will appear in panel four, you then have to figure out exactly how you’ll get there in panels one, two, and three. I love that challenge, and I also like the challenge of, as Schulz put it—and I’m paraphrasing very freely here—telling the same jokes over and over while keeping it fresh, and revisiting the same themes without repeating yourself. One of the charms of creating comic strips over many years is making them familiar enough that readers can almost predict what will happen—but still be surprised. When that happens, it means I’m doing my job well.
You obviously have lots of experience juggling creative projects. While continuing your Big Nate strips, might you tackle another novel about Max and the Midknights?
Initially, I signed a one-book deal, though I have since agreed to rewrite another Max book. I plan to take it one book at a time. I certainly don’t foresee a series that would go on as long as Big Nate, though I thought the first book in that series was a one-off. I’m about to start a seven-city book tour, and then I’ll regather myself, start work on the second Max book, and then decide what’s next. But I will say that I’ve really enjoyed all the time I’ve spent with Max and these other characters.
Can you give any clues as to where Max’s second adventure may lead?
The storyline is still totally up in air. In this first book, Max travels with Uncle Budrick, and I realize that kids may wonder what happened to the protagonist’s parents, so I may write about that. And I will definitely have to come up with a couple of new villains, since Max dispatched the villain in the first book quite handily. I do look forward to seeing what Max does next!
Max & the Midknights by Lincoln Peirce. Crown, $13.99 Jan. ISBN 978-1-101-93108-0
Lincoln Peirce talks about writing, drawing, and Big Nate
OCTOBER 6, 2022
The Maine Lit Fest, a week of readings, conversations, and gatherings in Waterville and Portland, features several Maine publishers and author collectives.
On Oct. 1, Lincoln Peirce `85, author, cartoonist, and animator, best known for the Big Nate comic strip and novels, shared his drawing and writing experiences at the Green Block Studio in downtown Waterville.
The stories of Big Nate premiered on Paramount+ as an animated series this year. Peirce has also written a number of other books, such as Max & the Midknights, a comedic adventure story set in the Middle Ages. An animated adaptation is set to appear on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon in 2023.
Peirce’s love for comics began at a young age with Charles Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts. The four-panel storytelling format, which Peirce uses in many of his works, is inspired by Peanuts.
“I [had] loved Peanuts before I learned to read,” he recalled.
Cartoons, comedies, and posters were all sources of inspiration for Peirce.
Peirce recalled when he first learned how to draw characters consistently. He was sent by his mother to the post office and saw a “wanted” poster on the wall featuring a photo of a person from both the side and front. Peirce practiced drawing “wanted” posters to sharpen his character creating skills.
Peirce worked as a cartoonist at The Colby Echo during his time at the College.
“Doing a comic at the Echo meant a lot to me, especially at the time before the internet era when everything was printed,” he said. “It was also the first time for me to have a deadline [to finish my cartoon.]”
Peirce began sending his comics to entertainment companies while he was in college. After many rejections, his portrait of the character Big Nate was accepted.
The name “Big Nate” came from Peirce’s nickname for his brother.
“I erased the first two letters of my big brother’s name and called him ‘Nathan’ when I was a kid. When creating the comics, I deleted the last few characters.” Peirce explained.
Looking forward, Peirce is thinking about creating stories for adults because most of them are currently targeted at young readers.
Peirce explained why he enjoys comics as an artistic medium.
“Comics are so different from writing [because] each panel can serve as a visual clue,” he said. “You will not know what will happen before reaching the final panel.”
Drawing a lightbulb and adding an eyebrow for “Big Nate” on the white board during the presentation, Peirce demonstrated the simplicity of comics.
“Comics can show things happening and make changes in a simple and fun way …One thing great about comics is that you do not have to draw things to imitate real life. Everything can be exaggerated,” Peirce explained.
Peirce mentioned that he currently lives in Maine and welcomes visitors to “knock on his door” and come say hi.
Big Nate, Small Screen: An Interview with Lincoln Peirce
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Note: Throughout the interview, click on an image to enlarge it.
Comics fans have seen Lincoln Peirce’s Big Nate in newspapers since 1991 and in an expanding line of books in the years since then. But this month, Nate Wright and company are making the leap to television animation with a streaming series on Paramount+ premiering on February 17. (The series is being produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio.) Hogan’s Alley editor Tom Heintjes recently spoke with Peirce about his experiences in adapting his work to animation.
Tom Heintjes: Well, Lincoln, it's a pleasure to talk to you. I’ve looked forward to this opportunity ever since Molly [Neuhauser, of Nickelodeon] brought it to me. I have a few questions I want to ask you about your career leading up to the Big Nate animated project, and some questions about what you're doing with it now.
Lincoln Peirce: Sure.
Heintjes: You've worked in some form of print storytelling books and comic strips for many years now. What were some of the challenges of animating Big Nate and thinking about him in a new medium—what was, for you, a new context for the character?
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Lincoln Peirce
Peirce: Well, the first challenge for me, Tom, I think, was imagining Nate in any other visual form besides just 2D, because I've always just drawn him the old-fashioned way, pen on paper. And at times when I tried to imagine him in three dimensions, I found stumbling blocks. I thought, “How could you make Nate's hair in three dimensions? How could you build a character and make it work in three dimensions?” So, I would characterize myself as a skeptic about 3D animation, specifically, for Big Nate because he's always been a two-dimensional character. So that was one of my, I guess, concerns or misgivings going forward.
Another one was that I've always been a one-man shop. I've never worked with anyone else. I've never collaborated with anyone. And so I thought, what's it going to be like when I inevitably work with other writers, when other writers are coming up with story ideas, when other people are designing my characters, when a casting director is sort of making the decision about who's going to voice these characters? So, I didn't really know what any of that would be like. And it's all been great, I’ve got to say. I’m delighted with the way everything is working out. And I think that is really a tribute to Nickelodeon, and the fact that they are really, really good at what they do. This is obviously not their first rodeo, and they're I think good at taking things from other source material and sort of making it their own. And in this case I am thrilled with how faithful an adaptation this is of Big Nate. And at the same time, there's a lot of sort of room for it to become more and different from Big Nate, too, because you can do so many things in animation that you can't do in four panels in the morning newspaper.
Heintjes: Actually, I want to touch on a couple of those themes shortly. But first, how did the opportunity to animate Big Nate come around? How did it come to your doorstep?
Peirce: Well, basically for the first 18 years of Big Nate, the comic strip, it sort of was on a flat line. It wasn't going down, but it wasn't going up. And like all cartoonists that I've ever met, I thought if only I could find a way to get in front of more people, especially kids. And so what happened with that was I had the opportunity to start writing Big Nate novels, and the novels were what sort of increased my audience and increased Big Nate's profile. And so shortly after I had started writing those novels, we started getting offers about maybe movie projects or TV projects, but they were all about live action. And so at a certain point, a producer named John Cohen wrote a letter to me. And I didn't know him, but he was, he had had some credits on the Despicable Me movies, and was at that time about to start producing the first Angry Birds movie.
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The animated Nate surrounded by artwork done in Peirce’s own style.
Heintjes: So obviously, a great deal of credibility.
Peirce: He wrote me the loveliest letter that told me what he liked about Big Nate and why he thought it would make a great animated project, and why he thought it could only exist in animation and not in live action. And so we made a handshake deal with him. He sort of became our rep to shop Big Nate around. And he did that and it took a while, but he eventually found a partner in Nickelodeon. And so that’s how it came to me. It came to me really from the result of John Cohen's hard work. He took a lot of meetings, and he made a lot of pitches, and that's how that's how it came about.
And then Nickelodeon assembled what to me was like a dream team of people that I could have worked with. Mitch Watson, who is one of the executive producers, is the show runner, the head writer. He's great. And then David Skelly, who is the art director, and really created much of the just the look of the characters, the character designs, the set designs, and I just felt in such good hands when I first met them. And of course, I still haven't met any of them in person. This has all been virtual. Everybody's just working from their own parts of the world.
Heintjes: Well, it's funny you mentioned that. I was just going to ask you—you mentioned how you worked alone for all these years. And cartooning and writing in general is a very solitary activity. Animation is quite the opposite, you know. It takes a small army, often on different continents. What was that very collaborative environment like versus what you've been used to for so long?
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Peirce: Yeah, it was super different. But it was really comfortable, I have to say. I mean, I guess I'm listed as a creative consultant on the show. And what that has ended up meaning is that that they have a great writers’ room on the show, they come up with story ideas. They'll write a first draft, and then they'll send it to me. And so my contribution is what they call doing punch-ups. I sort of work to punch up the scripts, I try to add jokes where I can, I try to sort of align the dialogue more with the way that I think the characters might speak, if they have a certain way of speaking, and the collaborative nature of that means that I know that they're going to use some of what I suggest and not use other things that I suggest, and that's fine with me. I'm happy as long as I sort of am able to sort of take a swing at it. And I think it really having not collaborated before, I think I kind of underestimated how important it can be just to sort of workshop some of this stuff and how much stronger you can make a script when five different people are sort of looking at it as opposed to just one set of eyes. So yeah, it's been sort of a revelation, and I think it's been enjoyable.
Heintjes: It sounds like you've also really flexed some different creative muscles in the process.
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Peirce: I think so. Yeah, it is really different to essentially to look at something someone else has written as opposed to something that you've written, and then sort of rewrite that or tweak it or something like that. It's just a really kind of different experience, because you don't know for certain what the person was thinking when they wrote this particular piece of dialogue or this particular scene. And sometimes, and this has also been entirely new to me. Sometimes something just won't really grab me on the page. I'll think, “Well, is that really going to work?” But then either because the animation looks so good or because the vocal performance is so funny, all the sudden, this gag that maybe seemed like sort of a C-plus on the page is an A-plus. So that's fun, too. And I didn't really know anything about that, just working alone on the comic strip or on the books.
Heintjes: Let me ask you about some of your own favorite cartoons from when you were a kid or up to now. What shaped your thinking about what makes a good cartoon?
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Peirce: Well, my go-to when I was a young boy was the old Max Fleischer Popeye cartoon.
Heintjes: Oh, that's cool!
Peirce: Yeah, there was a local TV show…I grew up in New Hampshire. There was a local TV show that had a genial host, and he had a live studio audience of some local kids. And he'd show some cartoons in addition to playing some little games. It was sort of like a Bozo the Clown kind of a show, but they always showed a couple of Popeye cartoons. And I loved them, and of course as a young kid I had no idea that Popeye was a comic strip character who had been transformed into this animated character. I didn't know what Thimble Theatre was or anything like that.
Heintjes: Right.
Peirce: I just loved Popeye. And one of the things I loved about those cartoons was just the absurdity of them. I thought it was just so surreal, as a young kid, that Popeye was so enamored of Olive Oyl. I said, essentially, what does Popeye see in Olive Oyl? [laughter] And then, of course, I loved the little guy against Bluto, against like the big guy. And I loved the vocal performances. I was really just in love with all those voices of those Popeye cartoons. And then later on, I was all about the Looney Tunes. I loved Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny is one of the all-time great characters. And I just watched those religiously, and you probably had the same experience when you're plugged into comics and cartooning in a way that's maybe different from your friends, and you're all watching cartoons together. You notice things that your friends don't notice. They're just watching a cartoon while you're watching it with the eyes of someone who, even at a young age, this is sort of in your DNA. And so you say, “Can't you tell that that's just the same cactus going by in the background?” And they're like, “What are you talking about?” Or you say, “Can't you tell that this Looney Tune is probably from about like late ‘40s, ‘48, ’49?” And they're like, “What do you mean?” And I’m like, “Can't you tell Bugs at first is a little darker than he is later, his dimensions are a little different?” And they're looking at you like, “You're crazy.”
Heintjes: And they might be right.
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Peirce: Yeah, but you notice these things. And then later on, of course, I loved Bullwinkle and Rocky. I think Bullwinkle and Rocky is, from a writing standpoint…the animation was really fun to look at too, but it was very simple. But from a writing standpoint, Bullwinkle and Rocky was phenomenal, and I loved it. So I put those as my big three: Popeye, Looney Tunes and Bullwinkle and Rocky.
Heintjes: Well, I must say you have outstanding taste in animation. You mentioned that Popeye voices and all the characters’ voices. That's an excellent segue to a question I had for you. Every cartoonist hears his characters as they write. You have voices in your head, if you will. So, what was it like for you to hear your own characters? Were you involved in casting voices, or how did that evolve in terms of how they actually speak?
Peirce: I was involved in casting voices, but I will say I may be a little bit different than some other cartoonists who have gone through this process in that I definitely the dialogue over the years when I would be working on the strip of the books. I heard the dialogue inside my head, but I didn't really hear specific voices so much as I just I hear my own voice saying the dialogue. You know, it sounds boring, but maybe I'm just not imaginative enough to sort of really sort of manifest the voices inside my head. I really didn't go into this with a clear idea like, “Okay, is Nate's voice going to be husky? Is it going to be high? Is it going to be low?” I really didn't know.
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And so when I heard some of the auditions, I thought, well, maybe something will really just jump out at me. And in fact, for almost all the parts, Nickelodeon would usually kind of cut down the number of people so that by the time I listened, I was listening to—I don't know, half a dozen or so. And in fact, in most cases, there were two or three possibilities where I thought, “Yeah, this person would be good.” The one exception to that is the voice of Nate. I thought Ben Giroux, who ended up being our Nate, was head and shoulders above anyone else I heard. But it wasn't because he spoke the voice I had been hearing in my head all these years. It was because there was just something in the quality of his voice that I thought made him a perfect match.
Heintjes: I also want to talk about character design. In animation, that's a very specialized skill and, I think, a very underrated skill. What was involved in capturing your characters—your very distinctive-looking characters—in an animation context, turning the, the things that have to happen? Was that a tough process or an easy one?
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Peirce: The design went fabulous thanks to Dave Skelly, who is our art director, and the others who were working with him. He sometimes called them characters, sometimes he called them puppets. One of the things that we talked about when we first met one another was 3D animation, sort of like the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, that sort of look a little bit choppy, a little…it's not claymation, but it's got sort of that stop-action look. And that was something that we really liked specifically for Big Nate, and we talked about a lot that. And I remember early on doing some drawings, some turnarounds, where I just made drawings of some of the characters from a bunch of different angles. I made some drawings of like mouth positions and things like that, but then they were doing tons of research independent of whatever I was supplying them with. They were reading all the Big Nate books, they were looking through the archive of past strips and really trying to look at the way that I drew the characters in different poses, different situations, and try to incorporate that. So I would say I contributed in a very small way, but I think the characters ended up looking as great as they do because Nickelodeon is really good at what they do. Like you said, character design is such a specific skill, and it's obviously one that they're really, really good at.
Heintjes: Did you look make actual old-school model sheets or anything like that, that they referred to?
Peirce: I did some what they call draw-overs, sort of like turnarounds or walk cycles, things like that. And I think they use those to some degree, but I also think it also it helps them to see where they're going to have to make some changes because, as you know, a lot of times when you're drawing in 2D, you have little cheats. You have little things that work because I'm drawing them in 2D, but if I ever tried to create a 3D model of this, it just wouldn't work. Like when Nate walks and the toes of his front foot point up, I have to shorten that foot because if I drew it as long as his plant foot, it would come up practically to his chin. So they realize that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the way that I draw. And to their credit, they didn't like make me feel bad about that. They didn't say, “Oh, my God, what have you done?” They just work with what they had, and they found ways to accommodate, I think, the look of Big Nate while creating these consistent models, these puppets that that could exist in the round. Like I said early on, I didn't know that they'd be able to do that.
Heintjes: Well, we all know the self-esteem of a cartoonist is fragile enough, so, it's nice that they didn’t point that out. But I had the opportunity, thanks to Molly, to watch some episodes in advance of our conversation, and I really enjoyed them. And one of the things I noticed is that each episode had this snippet—maybe just a few seconds—of a classic rock song. There was Boston and Simple Minds and Peter Gabriel. Was this to bridge generations? I just thought it was a nice way to talk to different generations.
Peirce: I love that about it too. And I have to plead almost complete ignorance on this, because I don't quite know how it all works with how you get rights to certain songs, and how much of the songs that you can play. But I remember when we were working on the pilot. The pilot ends with like a very sort of specific song sort of sting, and in the animatic they played the actual song, and I remember thinking, “Well, they're just using that as a placeholder. There's no way they're going to be able to like put that song in our cartoon.” Can they? And in fact, yes, they can. And it's one of the things that I love about drawing the strip. I draw it for all ages, and there are things within the strip that I think will resonate with older readers or middle-aged readers or whatever. But hopefully, there's still enough in it that young kids will enjoy it. And amazingly, to me, there's still a lot in the show where the show is much more specifically geared toward a kid audience, obviously. But we want it to be the sort of show that if mom and dad are sitting down next to the kid watching it alongside, that there's going to be plenty in there for them too. And I think the music is part of that.
Heintjes: Well, in the first episode, I think that's where I heard Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds—again, like three seconds of it. But when you're watching it and you hear that, it's like it really gets your attention because it's so old school and came out before these kids were born. So, thought it’s a great way to sort of tie together different audiences.
Peirce: I think so too. Yeah, I think you're right, and it hits you in a way that it wouldn't hit you had they needed to create a generic little piece of music for those same three seconds. The fact that it's the original sort of makes it kind of seem special in a way.
Heintjes: Each episode also features segments with work done in your own print style, which I thought was nice homage to the character’s roots. As someone who began as a print cartoonist, how did it feel to see some of your own drawings in a totally different context? There had to be kind of a real kick for you as an artist.
Peirce: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was delighted. You know, in one of our very first meetings, I remember saying to Mitch Watson, the head writer—sort of almost as if I was dreading the answer—“Now, are you planning to do some stuff with Nate's comics and Nate's notebook world? Because, to me, that can be like a really entertaining part of the show and of Nate's sort of worldview and the way he looks at things.” And right away, Mitch said, “Oh yeah, we have plans to do some really fun things with other types of animation within this 3D world that we're building. There's going to be some 2D animation, there's going to be some Monty Python–esque, almost collage animation that will coincide with maybe like a little fantasy segment or the way that another character might see a certain situation.” And I thought, that's great. I think that works really well in the show, and I think it just creates that many more storytelling possibilities.
Heintjes: At the end of the episode, there's a human hand drawing. Is that your actual hand?
Peirce: That is my actual hand, yeah.
Heintjes: Great! I wondered if you had a hand model or if that was you.
Peirce: No, that's me. My wife took like two dozen pictures of my hand, and I sent a bunch of them to Nickelodeon and they chose one. And at a certain point, they said, “Would you be willing to create a strip for us to use during the end credits for each episode?” I said yeah, so the strips that you see at the end, with my hand drawing them, are just jokes that I wrote that are sort of inspired by the episodes, but they don't specifically correlate to the episodes. But they're fun. I think it's a nice kind of tribute to the origins of Big Nate, that there's this four-panel motif at the end with the end credits.
Heintjes: I thought it was cool.
Molly Neuhauser: Tom—sorry, just jumping in here to let you know this should be the last question.
Heintjes: Oh, darn. Okay. Lincoln, we’ve talked a lot about your experience with the program. How does it compare to what you would have imagined? Everybody hears nightmare stories about notes from the studio, notes from executives. What's your experience been versus what you imagined it might be like? The reality versus the fantasy?
Peirce: I feel incredibly lucky because I've heard all the same horror stories that you have, I'm sure. And I think in my mind, I think it's natural when you're kind of launching into any sort of new thing, and you're essentially ceding control of something that has always been kind of exclusively yours to other creative people. And so, of course, my biggest fear was, what if it looks lousy? And then my secondary fear was, well, what if it looks okay, but the stories stink? As a creative person, you're just protecting yourself. Like you said earlier, our egos are fragile enough. It's like, let's prepare ourselves for disappointment. So I’ve been so lucky because it has been beyond anything I could have imagined. I am delighted with my partnership with Nickelodeon. I think the writers are really sort of keyed in to what the things I love about the characters, and I think the animators and the art direction is just top of the line.
My kids are grown, so it's been a while since I sat down and watched cartoons in my life, but from what I have seen, I think that our show just looks amazing. I think it's setting a really high bar for animation on TV. And, hopefully, when people see it, they're going to see that, yeah, this is something special. And hopefully they can tell how much fun we're having making it, because it really has been positive.
Heintjes: Well, I only wish we had more time because I wanted to talk about Brad Gunter and Jack Black [who voices Gunter in the first episode] and food poisoning and vomiting and all those good things, but I know we’re short on time. So I just want to say congratulations on this achievement. It's been a pleasure talking to you. I've enjoyed your work for many years, and I'm really happy to see you expanding the Big Nate empire like this.
Peirce: Thank you so much, Tom. It's great to talk to you.
QUOTED: "When we finally got together with Nickelodeon, it was a dream come true because they are the gold standard for TV animation for kids programming. I couldn't be happier."
Maine cartoonist of 'Big Nate' makes TV debut
Cartoonist Lincoln Peirce's popular comic strip and novel series 'Big Nate' has been made into a Nickelodeon cartoon.
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PORTLAND, Maine — For more than three decades, Maine cartoonist Lincoln Peirce has been conjuring up pranks and misadventures for his spirited main character in "Big Nate," and the longevity of his work proves he's created an undeniably relatable protagonist.
The syndicated "Big Nate" comic strip has been running for 31 years. Peirce's series of chapter books under the same name has sold in 33 different languages worldwide.
"I think that it captures kids because [Nate] is authentic, and he reminds them of themselves," Peirce, who is also the author of "Max and the Midnights," said.
Now comes a new chapter for "Big Nate" in the upcoming animated series by Nickelodeon that will stream on Paramount + later this month.
Over the years, there were several possibilities for transcribing "Big Nate" from the page and putting him on the big screen, but Peirce was insistent on one thing: It had to be a cartoon.
Peirce isn't writing the new "Big Nate" show or producing it, but he has had a strong hand in it, working as a consultant and helping re-write and "tweak" scripts.
"When we finally got together with Nickelodeon, it was a dream come true because they are the gold standard for TV animation for kids programming. I couldn't be happier," Peirce said.
Fans of "Big Nate" will notice on-screen differences in their favorite character. However, Nate is still as Peirce always intended: spirited, incorrigible, and occasionally getting into a lot of trouble.
While Nickelodeon creators have drawn from the blueprint Peirce has laid out over decades, they're also adding onto his foundation with new characters, such as one voiced by Jack Black, and new storylines.
Several other talented actors have joined the series, including comedian Rob Delaney, who sought out Nickelodeon. He wanted to be involved because his child is a huge "Big Nate" fan.
Just as in the comic series and books, middle school PS 38 is at the center of the "Big Nate" world on the screen. But at the urging of Nickelodeon, Peirce declared the location, for the first time ever, of where Nate lives.
"Over the years, people have asked, 'Where does Nate live?'" Peirce explained. "In my mind, he lived in Maine, but I was never specific about it, and one of the things that Nickelodeon said was, 'We really want there to be a sense of place. We really want him to live in Maine.'"
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Peirce had referenced the street where he lives in Portland as the made-up town, Rackleff, in the "Big Nate" world. Nickelodeon took that and ran, researching trees, buildings, and houses in the Pine Tree State to make the animated version of Maine feel real.
The characters in "Big Nate" have been navigating the sixth-grade world for more than 30 years. When I asked Peirce about his own sixth-grade experience, since it has turned into the center of his career, he said his memories of middle school are more vivid than any other in his adolescence.
"I think it is a really transitional time in a lot of kids' lives," Peirce said.
The real question: Was Peirce like Big Nate in sixth grade?
"Nate has a much more interesting kid than I was ... The kids who were getting in trouble seemed to have interesting lives. They seemed like they were having a lot more fun than the rest of us. I was envious of the kid that Nate was," Peirce admitted.
And therein may lie Big Nate's greatest appeal: He is who most of us wished we could have been in sixth grade.
AN INTERVIEW WITH LINCOLN PEIRCE
Lincoln PeirceLincoln Peirce is a New York Timesbestselling author and cartoonist. His comic strip Big Nate,featuring the adventures of an irrepressible sixth grader, appears in over 400 newspapers worldwide and online. In 2010, he began a series of illustrated novels based on the strip, introducing Nate and his cast of classmates and teachers to a new generation of young readers. In the past seven years, 16 million Big Nate books have been sold.
When he is not writing or drawing, Lincoln enjoys playing ice hockey, doing crossword puzzles, and hosting a weekly radio show devoted to vintage country music. He and his wife, Jessica, have two children and live in Portland, Maine.
MaxMAX & THE MIDKNIGHTS
An epic medieval graphic novel by New York Times bestselling author of the Big Nate series, Lincoln Peirce.
A laugh-out-loud adventure perfect for middle-grade readers, this is a story about following your dreams, believing in yourself, and the lesson that appearances can be deceiving. A major marketing and publicity campaign supports the book’s release, including a seven-city author tour.
While traveling with Uncle Budrick as a wandering troubadour-in-training, Max reaches the once-friendly Kingdom of Byjovia and finds it downright hostile. When Uncle Budrick is kidnapped by Byjovia’s loathsome King Gastley, Max teams up with a bumbling sorcerer and a group of kid outcasts—dubbed the Midknights—to save the day. But it’ll take more than a daring rescue mission to discover what ails Byjovia. With only their wits to guide them, Max and the Midknights embark on a quest both thrilling and hilarious to restore the kingdom to its former high spirits.
AN INTERVIEW WITH LINCOLN PEIRCE
When did you make your first comic?
My first comics weren’t really my own; they were copies of comics that I admired. When I was growing up, there were no cartooning classes or anything like that, so if you wanted to learn how to draw comics, you had to teach yourself – and the best way to do that was to imitate other cartoonists. When I was in early elementary school, I copied a lot of Peanutscharacters, and I also remember trying to learn how to draw Andy Cappand Fred Bassett. Eventually, though, I was ready to start inventing my own comics. I think the first character I ever drew that was entirely my own was a clumsy, dimwitted superhero named Super Jimmy. I was probably in 4thor 5thgrade when that happened.
Who were your inspirations and what was it that captivated you about comics?
My first and most lasting inspiration, without a doubt, was Charles Schulz of Peanutsfame. I loved everything about that strip – the deceptively simple artwork, the uniqueness of the characters, and the originality of Schulz’s writing. For most of its existence, Peanutswas a 4-panel strip, and I really liked the rhythm of four panels. Sometimes the “punch line” would actually occur in the 3rdpanel, and the 4thpanel would just be a reaction shot of poor Charlie Brown saying, “Good grief” or “I can’t stand it.” Schulz’s writing set Peanutsapart, but there were other strips I liked: Tumbleweeds by T.K. Ryan, B.C.by Johnny Hart, and especially Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury. I didn’t understand the political humor in Doonesburywhen I first started reading it, but I could see that it was unlike any other comic strip out there.
Do you really do all of your cartoons by hand? Does technology play a role at all?
It’s true that I still draw everything by hand. I start each drawing with a light sketch using an animator’s tool called a non-photo blue pencil, and then I go over it carefully using disposable pens. Years ago, I learned to draw in the time-honored way, by dipping a nib in india ink. But disposable pens work better for me.
Technology does play a small role. I used to submit my comics by mail, but now I scan them and send them electronically. And in recent years, I’ve learned how to use Photoshop to erase smudges, straighten lines, and so on. For my new book, Max & the Midknights, I decided I wanted to add gray tones to the drawings, and I was happy with the way they came out. But I can’t imagine going completely high-tech the way many of my cartooning colleagues have. I’m not interested in drawing on a digital tablet with a stylus. I’ll stick with pen and paper.
Is it true that you hold a world record for the longest cartoon strip?
Yes, unless someone’s set a new record that I haven’t heard about. But I certainly can’t claim the record just for myself. It was a collaborative effort between me, HarperCollins (the publisher of the Big Nate novels), and several dozen elementary and middle schools around the country. Kids and their teachers would receive materials from the publisher, and they’d create their own oversized Big Nate panels based on art I’d included in the novels. Then the schools would send their panels to the publisher in New York. And I contributed a few panels myself. Eventually, when we had enough panels to set a new world record, we laid them all end-to-end on the ground at Rockefeller Plaza. It was televised on the Today show. I got to meet Al Roker, one of my favorite TV personalities.
We all know and love Big Nate novels. What made you decide to move on to a new novel, Max and the Midknights?
It was a two-part decision. The first part was deciding to stop writing Big Nate novels in 2016. I made that decision because, although I was very pleased and proud of the eight books I’d written, I’d noticed that it had been more difficult to come up with fresh storylines in books #7 and #8. The last thing I wanted was for readers to pick up book #9 or #12 and decide that the later books in the series weren’t as good as the earlier ones. I concluded that stopping too soon was preferable to stopping too late.
I still wanted to write books, though, and I intended to work in the same “hybrid” format I’d used in the Big Nate novels – using comics and text in combination. But I didn’t want to create something that seemed too similar to Big Nate. I didn’t think the world needed more books about kids in the sixth grade. I thought it would be fun to write about characters who weren’t tied down to one setting, like a school or a household. That’s when I got the idea to write an adventure story.
Was it scary starting from scratch with a brand new concept after years of living with Big Nate?
I wouldn’t call it scary, but it was challenging in many ways. Some authors may not feel this way, but I think it’s kind of difficult to come up with story ideas that are interesting and complex enough to fill 200 or 300 pages. And for Max & the Midknights, I needed to invent an entirely new cast of characters. That means not only determining what their personalities are like, but also learning how to draw them. When you’re drawing characters that are new to you, it can be tough to render them consistently at first.
Where did this concept stem from, and what was the appeal of medieval times?
Once I knew I wanted to write an adventure story, I considered several different ideas: a jungle safari, a mountain-climbing expedition, a pirate’s voyage, and so on. But the concept that intrigued me the most was writing about some sort of quest. Just the word “quest” suggests medieval times. And there’s ample precedent for using the Middle Ages as a backdrop for both adventure and comedy. Look at the 1938 movie The Adventures of Robin Hood, for instance. Or, years later, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Both of those movies combine medieval motifs with a more modern sense of humor, and that’s what I aspired to do. The characters in Max & the Midknights may be living in the 1300’s, but their voices, their mannerisms, and the way they express themselves are quite contemporary.
How long did it take you to write and illustrate the story? Do you write the story and then illustrate it or work the two in parallel?
It took longer than I would have liked – nearly two years. It proceeded slowly for several reasons: I was working with characters I wasn’t familiar with; it’s a longer book (279 pages) than I’d ever written before; and the artwork is more ambitious and complicated than the drawings in a typical Big Nate novel.
I always include rough art as I’m writing. Because the words and the drawings work in concert with one another, it would be impossible for me to compose the text without including drawings. But I don’t do the finished artwork until I’ve finished writing the entire manuscript. For Max & the Midknights,the first draft of the manuscript was about 310 pages, and my editor and I agreed that it was too long. I made a number of edits, trying to cut a page or two from each chapter. Once I pared the book down to 279 pages, I was ready to create the finished art.
Will we continue to see your syndicated Big Nate comic strip?
Absolutely! I still love the grind of a daily comic strip. I’ve been doing Big Nate for 28 years now, and I’ve got a few good years left in me!
What is your favorite quote?
I have no idea who first said it, but I like this one: “Never pass up a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut.”
INTERVIEW: Lincoln Peirce and the BIG NATE cartoon producers discuss adapting the beloved comic strip
"I think of Nickelodeon as the ideal partner and I think they like working with me."
By Taimur Dar -02/16/2022 2:15 pm0
The beloved comic strip Big Nate by cartoonist Lincoln Peirce has evolved quite a bit from a newspaper comic strip first debuted in 1991 to a full-blown media franchise that includes illustrated novels and even a stage musical. After more than three decades though, Big Nate is ready to hit the small screen with the new animated Big Nate series from Nickelodeon. The cartoon, like the original syndicated comic strip, follows the trials and tribulations of the titular Nate Wright, an underachieving yet bold and headstrong sixth grade student with dreams of greatness, and the coterie of colorful characters in his life.
The Beat had the chance to chat not only with Big Nate creator Peirce ahead of the animated show’s premiere, but also with the animated show’s executive producers John Cohen and Mitch Watson.
Taimur Dar: As you’ve said in the past, Big Nate was a modest success when it first debuted as a comic strip in 1991 but only really broke out in the last decade through the YA and Middle Grade novels. When did you get approached to adapt the property for animation and what made Nickelodeon the right home for Big Nate?
Lincoln Peirce: I’d say that soon after the book series began we started getting some offers for either movies or television. But none of those offers early on were for animated properties. They were for live-action projects. I just turned all those down out of hand because my philosophy was Big Nate is a comic strip. He’s a cartoon character. So if he’s going to be on a TV show or movie he should be animated. Eventually we made a handshake deal with a producer named John Cohen who had worked on the Despicable Me series and ended up producing the Angry Birds movies. He wrote me a letter about Big Nate and why he liked Big Nate and why he thought Big Nate would only work as an animated show. He checked off all my boxes and he sort of became our representative and went around trying to find us a partner to work with on a potential Big Nate show or movie.
It took awhile. He had a lot of meetings and knocked on a lot of doors and kept saying, “We’re going to get the right deal eventually.” And we did with Nickelodeon. I think that the reason it worked really well was because when John met with Nickelodeon and [President] Ramsey Naito, she had a child who knew Big Nate and was familiar with the property. One of the great things about Nickelodeon is that we’re making a show that is a faithful adaptation of the world of the Big Nate comic strips and the books and that was important to me. They’re also using the show as a platform to go off on tangents and tell the sorts of stories that are impossible to tell in a comic strip that is only 4 panels long. They are a great partner because of that and the people involved. We have Mitch Watson as our executive producer and head writer. He’s phenomenal. David Skelly as the art director is largely responsible for the look of the show, the attention to detail, and character designs. It took awhile but I’m delighted that when we made a deal we made it with Nickelodeon.
Taimur Dar: While most people know you for your comic work, you’re no stranger to animation. In fact, you actually worked on that “Super John Doe Junior” short for Nickelodeon. Did that prior relationship with Nickelodeon play a part?
Peirce: That was an interesting project to work on. It was part of a shorts program. As I recall, Nickelodeon had a partnership with an animation house called Frederator. Through that I got the chance to create this short about a little superhero who was frustrated because he was the son of a superhero but did not have his dad’s powers. From working on that project, I knew a couple of the names at Nickelodeon years later. I ended up hooking up with them and we circled back and reminisced. A lot changes in just a few short years. Just the very nature of TV animation has changed so much that when we were starting out and John Cohen was pitching Big Nate, I think he was pitching it as a 2D property. At some point down the line it became clear that if it’s going to be animated it’s going to be in 3D. That’s sort of the industry standard at this point. That was exciting too knowing that there was going to be this challenge to turn these 2D characters into 3D characters. It’s beyond any expectation I could have had.
Taimur Dar: The end credits feature original comic drawings by you. Aside from that, how involved are you in the day-to-day operations of the show?
Peirce: When they were first working on the initial character designs they asked me to take a look and create some draw turnarounds and to create a template for the way that Nate moves in 2D. And then they incorporated some of those drawings in their character designs when they were essentially creating the 3-Dimensional models. I’m more involved in the writing part. We have a great writers’ room and they create the outlines and the first drafts of the scripts and then I see the scripts. They call what I do “punching up the scripts.” I’ll add some jokes or rewrite some dialogue to make it sound more consistent with the way characters speak in the strip or the books. That’s been really fun for me because I’ve always worked by myself pretty much on my own. It’s fun to collaborate. I didn’t know if I would enjoy it or be any good at it. It’s fun to collaborate when the people you’re working with are so talented and excited about the project.
Taimur Dar: Adaptation always involves some change from the source material. The Big Nate animated series reminds me of Aaron McGruder’s approach when he adapted his Boondocks comic strips for animation. Certain characters were cut out but also new ones were created and they expanded the Boondocks world. What are your thoughts on the changes they made for the cartoon?
Peirce: It’s been really interesting to see how much more world-building you can do on TV and animation than you can do in the strip, just visually speaking. I can hint at the fact that the kids are in school by drawing a bank of lockers behind them or a couple of classroom desks but I really can’t expand beyond that. There’s not enough space. One of the things that we talked about early on in our production meetings was expanding the world of Nate’s school, P.S. 38, and amplifying a theme I wrote in one of the Big Nate novels which was that the school is old and falling apart. There’s a rival school too, literally across the street, called Jefferson Middle School. And that school is this palatial, sparkling, state of the art facility where students have every luxury and convenience. That’s very consistent with a theme in the strip but we’re able to amplify it on the show. There haven’t been any changes where I thought, “That would never happen.” Nickelodeon has been really careful to maintain the integrity of the characters and their personalities. Inevitably they won’t look exactly like they do in 2D because that’s impossible. But I think they are a phenomenal representation in 3-Dimensions. It’s been a great learning experience for me.
Big Nate
Taimur Dar: Gross-out humor has been part of Nickelodeon’s brand pretty much since its early days. It’s definitely showcased in the Big Nate cartoon, perhaps more than the comics, at least the ones that I read. How do you feel about the emphasis on gross humor in the show?
Peirce: I think that Nickelodeon really knows its audience and when you’re talking about who your audience is, it’s a very different animal from one to the other. I remember when I started the comic strip, one of the things that my first editor told me was that people don’t want to be grossed out over their morning coffee. And kids don’t really read newspapers. Even though Big Nate has become known over the years as a kids’ property and comic strip, I don’t really write the comic strip for kids. I write it for readers of all ages. It’s probably read by at least as many adults as it is kids. That’s very different from the novels that I wrote which were specifically for a kid audience or from the TV show which is targeted at a kid audience. In those cases, I think you can push the envelope a little bit more in terms of the gross-out humor. If you spend any time around an 8 or 9-year old you know that stuff really resonates with them. I’ve tried to be true to what an 11-year old thinks is funny because Nate is 11-years old and he draws his own comics. When I draw comics as if it’s Nate drawing them, I almost have to think of myself as a completely different person. That’s a dynamic that Nickelodeon is really smart to pay attention to.
Taimur Dar: Finally, in addition to Big Nate, Nickelodeon is also developing an animated series based on your Max & the Midknights series. Did that come about after the experience with Big Nate or was it already in the works?
Peirce: I’m not exactly sure of the timeline but I think it helped Max & the Midknights that working on Big Nate has been such a positive experience. I think of Nickelodeon as the ideal partner and I think they like working with me. That couldn’t have hurt. But I think that both properties came to Nickelodeon sort of from different directions. I mentioned John Cohen was the one pitching Big Nate. Another producer, Jane Startz, was pitching Max & the Midknights. They both have a real history of creating successful projects. For Nickelodeon, I can only speculate they might have been happy to work with me again but I’m sure they jumped at the chance to work with Jane Startz again. That’s very exciting too.
Dar: Often it seems that people who work on these children’s media adaptations are introduced to the original source material through their kids. Walt Disney, for instance, wanted to make a Mary Poppins film because of his daughters and Lincoln Peirce said that Nickelodeon President Ramsey Naito knew about the Big Nate franchise through her own children. I know you have two daughters Mitch, so I’m curious if they were Big Nate readers?
Mitch Watson: I’ll be honest with you, no. I knew of it but I mainly found out about it through John and Ramsey Naito.
John Cohen: I was personally a huge fan of the comic strips and the books. I work a lot in family films, so I read a lot of books and material that is created for the family audience. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences getting to know these characters. It speaks to me and I’m an adult. I find it to be so funny and the characters are so well-informed and have such richness having been around now for 31 years. I just fell in love with [it].
Dar: I’m a fan of The Office and the eponymous character of Nate Wright definitely reminds me a bit of Michael Scott as played by Steve Carell. Both share quite a few personality traits, particularly their unearned confidence. Those types of characters can be quite tricky. Even during that first season of The Office they struggled making Michael Scott likable until they tweaked him a bit. How did you try to make Nate an endearing character for this animated series?
Watson: That is a great question. When I first got involved in the project, the big issue that I was told right out of the gate was one of the problems they had developing the show in the past was that Nate would come off as a jerk. They said, “We can’t have a lead character who’s a jerk, especially on a kids show.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I get that.”
The funny thing is even when I read the books I never thought of him that way. I always read him as insecure in a lot of ways. I always approached him right from the beginning as a kid who is in this weird middle ground where you’re not a kid but you’re not even a teenager yet. You don’t know who you are. To me, Nate was always this kid who dreams of being awesome. That’s his goal in life. He doesn’t know how to get there though. His way of thinking that he’s going to achieve that is by being the class clown and cause trouble. I could completely relate to that because that was me basically in middle school.
That was the first way I approached the character. This kid isn’t a dick. In a way he’s myopic. He doesn’t always see everything around him but his intentions aren’t bad. He wants to entertain his class. There’s an insecure part of him that just wants people to acknowledge him as being awesome which is what the pilot is about. The way that I figured out how to do it in the pilot was by showing somebody who really is a monster. In the pilot we’re introduced to the character Bentley Carter who is a horrible person. When you juxtapose him against Nate suddenly you see that Nate isn’t that bad a kid.
There’s a wonderful moment in the pilot when Nate is sitting on the toilet and he’s speaking to his fantasy hero Brad Gunter, the greatest pranking champion of all-time, played by Jack Black. We see Nate at his lowest, not knowing who he is and being really down. And then his hero says to him, “Heroes never keep their heads down. They put their heads up. They walk tall and they never give up.” We see suddenly that insecurity played out and him rising to the occasion. He’s not there yet but hopefully he’ll get there someday. That to me is the key to a lot of these kinds of characters. There’s always a need to play these characters as perfect or flawless.
Big Nate cartoonI always prefer to play characters for their flaws. The flaws are the most interesting thing and all the characters have flaws. Dee Dee, who desperately wants to be an actress, overdoes it. Sometimes she forgets how to be a person because she dives so deep into her characters. Teddy hides the fact that he’s actually really smart but he doesn’t want people to know that about him. [The character] Francis probably knows the most about himself but he’d like to be a cool kid which is why he hangs out with Nate. That’s what I always do. You find the flaws and then you find the layers on top of the flaws. If you only play the surface, then yeah, Nate is a dick. But if you look beneath that, he’s like every other kid. He’s insecure and trying to find his place in the world. I have a 10-year old daughter who’s going through that right now and so are all of her friends.
Dar: Ahead of the animated series, I decided to read some Big Nate comics for myself and quickly fell in love with it. The comics have an embarrassment of riches with so many great running gags like “the power of Chad” and characters such as Nate’s grandparents and uncle Ted who’s a bit of an emotionally stunted manchild but one of my favorite characters. Can we look forward to seeing some of those gags and characters I mentioned? If not, are you hoping to eventually bring in more characters from the comic if there is a potential second season?
Cohen: I will say that we are blessed to have this huge, huge universe. It’s kind of like what The Simpsons built up over as many seasons as they did. They just kept growing and expanding to this entire world and community of characters. We love those characters [that you mentioned] as well. I will tell you that they all do find their way into the series. It takes a little bit of time. You’ll see in this first batch that’s being released on February 17th just a taste of the world. But it will continue to grow.
Q&A with Lincoln Peirce, Creator of Big Nate
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Q&A with Lincoln Peirce, creator of Big Nate
This interview was originally conducted and published August 2017.
Between the releases of two Big Nate comics collections and accepting the Milner Award for Children’s Literature, 2017 was a busy year for cartoonist Lincoln Peirce. Luckily, we caught up with him for a few minutes to talk about comics creation, funny title selection, and an all-new world of hilarious hijinks outside the walls of P.S. 38.
AMP: I think a lot of kids (and librarians) are unaware that Big Nate is a comic strip that was syndicated in newspapers for 19 years before the novels appeared. Can you tell us what it was like to create the novels based on the strip? How does your approach to creating a novel differ from standalone strips?
Lincoln Peirce: The chance to write Big Nate novels was sort of an unexpected opportunity. I was excited about it, but at that point—in 2009—I’d never written a book before. I knew almost nothing about the process. I felt confident that I could do it, though, because I’d spent so many years developing the characters in the strip. I knew their personalities and how they’d react to certain situations, so that was a good start. And even though creating a novel was a new experience, a lot of it seemed familiar. I had to create compelling storylines and write snappy dialogue, just as I’ve always tried to do in the strip—but I was doing it in a 216-page format instead of in just a few panels. On the first novel, I just dove in and wrote it one chapter at a time; I’d send the chapters (including very rough art) to my editor as I finished them, and she’d give me some feedback. Then I’d do some rewriting—again, a chapter at a time. I don’t write outlines describing the whole story arc; I never know how a novel is going to end until I’m at least halfway through writing it. One difference I noticed immediately was that I had to write differently for novel readers (children) than I did for strip readers (folks of all ages). And in the novels, it was important to make certain that I could wrap up all the story threads in a predetermined number of pages. In the strip, if I can’t finish a storyline in two weeks, I can just extend it into a third week. But with the novels, there was a page count that was set in stone. I definitely had a lot to learn. But as it turned out, I really enjoyed writing books.
AMP: You’ve got a new book releasing, A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie, which follows the last collection, entitled, What’s a Little Noogie Between Friends? Is this a theme? What’s next—Wet Willies for Everyone? Just kidding. Tell us a little about how you go about selecting titles for your books.
LP: The first several collections had fairly generic titles, like Big Nate Makes The Grade or Big Nate And Friends. But at some point—I think it might have been with the book called I Can’t Take It!—my editor and I decided that we wanted titles that somehow referred to the book’s contents. Since then, we’ve found a process that works pretty well. She’ll read through all the strips included in a collection, and she’ll look for a particular strip or a certain turn of phrase that might make a good title. She’ll send me maybe half a dozen possibilities. If one of them grabs me, and if I think I can make a funny cover drawing to go along with it, then we’re all set. But sometimes we need to do a little more digging before we find just the right title. The Noogie title and this new one are definitely crowd-pleasers. Kids love words and actions that are sort of mischievous or even forbidden. Your average kid is probably more intrigued by a book called A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie than one called Big Nate’s Greatest Hits. Not all titles are going to be home runs, of course. But our general rule moving forward is: the funnier the title, the better.
AMP: If I had a dollar for every time a librarian told me at a library conference, “We can’t keep Big Nate on the shelf,”…I’d have a lot of dollars. Why are kids so drawn to Nate?
LP: I hope it’s because Nate’s life seems authentic to kids. I try hard to make Nate sound and behave like a real 11-year-old boy, and not a miniature adult. I mean, there will always be times when you have to cheat a little bit and make your characters slightly more eloquent or philosophical or sophisticated than an actual child would be… but for the most part, I try to keep Nate and his classmates pretty firmly rooted in a realistic depiction of middle school life. Also, I happen to think that Nate’s a pretty likeable kid. He can be incredibly immature and self-centered, but over the long haul, it becomes clear that Nate’s heart is usually in the right place. I have no interest in doing a comic strip about a mean kid who’s always looking to cause trouble. That’s no fun. And doing a strip about a kid who never gets in trouble and makes the honor roll every semester isn’t my goal, either. That’s boring. Nate’s somewhere in the middle, and that’s where I think most real-life kids are, too.
From A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie
From A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie.
AMP: Nate has made some comics of his own over the course of the series. What advice do you have for kids who are interested in starting their own comics?
LP: Well, the most important thing is to practice consistently. Cartooning is just like any other skill: the more you do it, the better you are at it. And when I say “practice,” I’m talking about drawing AND writing. Kids aren’t necessarily thrilled to hear this, but I think writing is more important than drawing for a cartoonist. We’ve all seen comics—or movies or TV shows, for that matter—that LOOK great, but the story is awful. You’re better off being a great writer who draws stick figures than a great artist who can’t write at all. Of course, all the best comic strip creators—Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson, Richard Thompson—have been geniuses in BOTH departments.
AMP: I understand you’re a featured author at this year’s Library of Congress National Book Festival in a couple of days, and you’re headed to Atlanta in October to accept the 2017 Milner Award for Children’s Literature (congratulations!). Is there anything else you’ve got going on this fall your fans would like to know about?
LP: I still enjoy doing the comic strip every day; I plan to keep that going for many years to come, which means there will be more Big Nate compilation books in the future. And at some point, I may decide to write more Big Nate novels, although I think the eight I’ve written so far is a nice, round number. For kids who enjoyed those books, I do have some news: I’m working on a new novel called Max and the Midknights. It’s a comedic adventure story set in the middle ages. That might sound like a far cry from the middle school adventures I’ve been writing about for all these years, but kids who like Big Nate are going to like this book. It’s longer than a Big Nate novel, but it’s a similar format—a combination of text and comics—and it’s written for the same age group. It’s an entirely new cast of characters that I’m certain kids will really enjoy, and it’s also got a few elements you won’t find in the hallways of P.S. 38: knights, dragons, wizards, and so on. All the writing is essentially done, and I’ll be spending the next 7 or 8 months doing the finished art. It’s due to come out in September of 2018.
Thanks, Lincoln! For more, check out the Big Nate page!
QUOTED: "I’m proud that Big Nate has been embraced by so many kids in recent years. It wasn’t all that long ago that people didn't consider comics to be legitimate reading material for children. But that’s changed now, and reading comics is often a way that 'reluctant readers' become interested in books during elementary school. To play even a small part in encouraging kids to read is really rewarding."
A Conversation with Lincoln Peirce: Celebrating 30 Years of “Big Nate”
by GoComics Staff
January 19, 2021
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the debut of Big Nate, the daily syndicated comic strip by Lincoln Peirce that follows around the “exasperatingly lovable and obnoxious” Nate Wright, along with his friends, family, arch-enemies, girlfriends, and teachers. (Some, who shall remain nameless, could land in multiple categories, of course.)
Launched on January 7, 1991, the Big Nate universe has since expanded into a series of eight illustrated novels, a musical, and now a 26-episode animated TV show on Nickelodeon. But Nate hasn’t aged a day, still an 11-year-old precocious sixth grader who's constantly riddled with detentions, attempts many sporting feats, and develops seemingly interminable—though unrequited—crushes.
We caught up with Peirce who explains why he thinks middle school is a comic-strip sweet spot, reveals some secrets about Nate, and reflects on his own feat: writing and illustrating a daily comic for three decades.
How’s life in (snowy?) Portland, Maine?
Not so snowy! But I'm sure we’ll get more than our share before winter is over. Otherwise, things here are much as I imagine they are everywhere in the country, thanks to the COVID emergency: isolated, somewhat monotonous, and a little surreal. I'm fortunate that I was already accustomed to working alone at home—that’s made adjusting to the pandemic somewhat easier.
What are you excited about right now?
I’m pleased to have recently passed the “30 years of Big Nate” milestone. Way back when I got started, I remember reading that most syndicated comic strips don't last more than two or three years. I’m grateful to have beaten the odds!
What’s Nate excited about right now?
I’m not sure—probably some harebrained scheme. He’s a creative thinker with a can-do attitude, so it doesn’t take much to fire him up. But as the past thirty years have shown, just because Nate is excited about something doesn’t make it a good idea. In fact, it’s usually pretty much the opposite of a good idea.
What’s one thing people don’t know about Nate? About you?
Readers don’t know why Nate doesn’t have a mom. The much-too-long answer is that back when I started the strip, I mentioned on a couple of occasions that Nate’s parents were divorced. I thought a single-parent family would set Big Nate apart from other strips. I planned to introduce Nate’s mom as an occasional character, but I soon realized that Nate’s school life was taking over the strip and his domestic life was fading into the background. At a certain point, I decided it wouldn’t make sense to bring Mom into the cast—and so I just sort of pretended the whole thing never happened!
As for unknown facts about me, here are three: I enjoy making pies, I do not hear particularly well out of my right ear, and I once had lunch with “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak.
What’s been your favorite story arc or gag in 30 years?
Hmm. I don't think I can pick a single gag, but there’s a story arc I've always liked, from back in 2008. Toxic mold is found in Nate’s school and as a result, he and his classmates must attend classes at Jefferson Middle School, their archrival. The story lasted for at least three months, and it was fun to write gags about the culture clash between the two groups. One of the high points of the arc was a soccer match in which the P.S. 38 Bobcats, thanks to some heroics from Nate, managed to upset the seemingly unbeatable Jefferson Cavaliers. I enjoy giving Nate his occasional moments of triumph. Losing is funnier than winning, as Charles Schulz famously said, but that doesn’t mean your characters have to lose every single time.
What’s your superpower? What’s Nate’s superpower?
My superpower is my uncanny ability to remember 1970s Top 40 song lyrics, which doesn't come in handy all that frequently. Nate’s superpower is his unshakeable self-confidence. Kids sometimes ask if I based Nate on myself, and the answer is no—he’s the sort of kid I would have liked to be, but wasn’t. He has so much moxie and his life is way more eventful than mine ever was. That’s because he never loses faith in himself. It can make him a little obnoxious at times, but ultimately I think his self-confidence serves him well.
Best advice you would give yourself 30 years ago when you started the daily strip?
If I could, I’d convince myself to take more time to improve my skills before launching the strip. When I look at Big Nate strips from the early 1990s, I'm not very happy with them. I couldn’t draw all that well or with much consistency, and I don’t think those strips from the first few years look very good. My advice would be: take a year, and do nothing but practice your craft. But back then, I would never have followed that advice. I was trying to reach my childhood dream of creating a nationally syndicated comic strip, and I was in a big hurry.
Other than cartooning, what profession would you like to try?
Oh, that’s easy. I love music and have always admired people who have mastered an instrument. I think it would be wonderful to be a musician.
What profession would you never want to try?
In no particular order: museum guard, telemarketer, politician.
What’s the best compliment you’ve received about Big Nate?
When I started writing Big Nate chapter books back in 2010, my editor gave the manuscript of my first draft to the children of some of her friends and colleagues, in the hopes that the kids would provide us with some blurb-length reviews we could use. An 8-year-old named Liam wrote something on a yellow Post-It note, which I still have on my bulletin board. It says: “Big Nate is going to blow your pants off.”
Related: Read Big Nate from the beginning
What’s the best piece of constructive criticism you’ve received about Big Nate?
When I submitted the strip that would eventually become Big Nate, my first editor thought that the ensemble cast was too big. She suggested that I pick one character to build the strip around. I chose a character named Nate, who in my early submissions was sort of mild-mannered. I gave him a much bigger personality and tweaked his appearance a number of times. That was really helpful feedback.
What’s a skill you’d like to master?
Probably playing the guitar.
What’s one thing Charles Schulz said to you that you’ll never forget?
He invited me to come out to California and play hockey with him. He had his own ice arena, and he was a Minnesota boy who loved to skate. I also play hockey, and we sometimes spoke about it when we talked on the phone. And one day, he said, “You should come out to visit, and we could play some hockey together.” The problem was, I was only a couple years into my career at that point and was barely managing to make a living. I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, let alone the money to fly from Maine to California, and my wife was expecting our first child. So I didn’t go. It’s one of my real regrets. But I’ll never forget that he asked me to come.
The middle school experience has changed a lot in three decades, obviously. But what’s stayed constant?
The thing that will never change about middle school is the way that it coincides so perfectly with the shift from childhood to adolescence. Elementary school is like a safe little bubble, and high school is like the wild, wild west—but middle school is the transition between the two. It’s where you go from having one teacher to several different teachers. You go from having a cubbyhole in your classroom to a locker in the hallway. Suddenly there are events to contend with that weren't part of elementary school, like intramural sports and school dances. It’s a seismic change. Here in the Northeast, middle school includes grades six, seven, and eight. Most kids are about 11 when they start and 14 when they finish. Those tween and early teen years can be pretty tumultuous. I remember sixth grade as being the most eventful year of my life. That’s why, when I started the comic strip, I chose to make Nate a sixth grader.
How do you know when a joke works?
It works when I think it's funny. I realize that’s probably a “Captain Obvious” answer, but if I write something that cracks me up in the privacy of my office, I feel reasonably confident that a decent number of other people will find it funny, too. The difficult part isn’t separating the good gags from the bad ones; it’s separating the good gags from the mediocre ones.
In 30 years of Big Nate, what makes you most proud?
I’m proud that Big Nate has been embraced by so many kids in recent years. It wasn’t all that long ago that people didn't consider comics to be legitimate reading material for children. But that’s changed now, and reading comics is often a way that “reluctant readers” become interested in books during elementary school. To play even a small part in encouraging kids to read is really rewarding.
Keep up with Nate and his pals on GoComics here!
QUOTED: "further adapting that medium back into print feels utterly unnecessary" "redundant."
Peirce, Lincoln DESTINED FOR AWESOMENESS Andrews McMeel Publishing (Children's None) $12.99 8, 30 ISBN: 978-1-5248-7560-2
Nate Wright returns in a new format.
Spiky-haired sixth grader Nate Wright is back for three new adventures adapted from his recently animated show. The first, "The Legend of the Gunting," tells the legend of Brad Gunter, an infamous student who purportedly got five detentions in one week and then disappeared. When a prank-loving new student tips Nate toward a feared fifth detention, can Nate stop him before it's too late? In the second tale, "Go Nate! It's Your Birthday," Nate mischievously interprets his dad's birthday offer, maxing out his credit card and finding himself in thousands of dollars of debt. "CATastrophe," the final story, pits Nate against his crush--and his long-standing fear of cats. Unlike its predecessors, this nearly full-color offering (there are some black-and-white panels as throwbacks to Peirce's comic strips) may have some visual appeal, but for those who have seen the show, this volume is simply a collection of screenshots from the first few episodes. This long-running and well-loved series has seen many iterations, from chapter books to graphic novels, and while an animated counterpart makes sense, further adapting that medium back into print feels utterly unnecessary; even devout fans may roll their eyes at this. Nate is White; his friends portray a mix of skin tones and body sizes.
Redundant. (Graphic adaptation. 7-11)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Peirce, Lincoln: DESTINED FOR AWESOMENESS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A713722619/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f2b451f7. Accessed 18 Dec. 2022.
QUOTED: "a pleasing wrap-up."
Peirce, Lincoln C. THE TOWER OF TIME Crown (Children's None) $13.99 3, 1 ISBN: 978-0-593-37789-5
Max and Mary uncover family secrets during a time-traveling mission.
In this third series installment, plucky Max questions her relationship to Mary and explores its roots. But before she confronts her, Max and her group of noble Midknights must first find Mary--a thief wanted for stealing food--and journey from their home kingdom of Byjovia to the realm of Klunk, Mary's homeland and Byjovia's sworn enemy. Along the way, expected hilarity ensues: pesky pirates, a dragon ride, much magical mayhem (including spells gone wrong that turn people into a cat and an apple), and copious puns and gags. Eventually, Max and Mary find the mystical Tower of Time, attempting to travel back in time and see if they can untangle their pasts in hopes of making a new future and saving those they love. With its medieval-inspired setting, rollicking antics, and zippy pacing pairing comics panels with bursts of text, Peirce's newest offering is perhaps the most substantial plotwise, tying up loose ends from previous volumes with a happily-ever-after ending rather than a cliffhanger. However, the twists are not particularly revelatory; most readers will be able to easily guess the big reveal. Predictability aside, fans of the series should be pleased with the tidy ending. In the black-and-white illustrations, Max and Mary read as White; secondary characters present as having a wider range of skin tones and hair textures.
A pleasing wrap-up. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 7-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Peirce, Lincoln C.: THE TOWER OF TIME." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A688199574/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c3fa2888. Accessed 18 Dec. 2022.