Big Nate

Big Nate is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce and distributed by NEA since January 7th, 1991. The strip revolves around eleven-year, eleven-month-old Nate Wright, a radical rebel in the sixth grade, his school friends, teachers, and his enemies. It has eight spin-off novels, which were published from 2010 to 2017, as well as an animated adaption by Nickelodeon set to release from 2020 to 2021.

Synopsis

Big Nate follows the adventures and misadventures of Nate Wright, a rebellious yet spirited male sixth-grader, along with his fellow classmates and teachers. He is portrayed as a boy with very little interest in studies or conforming to standards, which has led him into several conflicts with his social studies teacher Mrs. Godfrey, whom he considers to be his nemesis. Strips also focus on Nate's home life and friendships with his best friends Francis and Teddy. Answering questions from fans in the Washington Post, Peirce revealed the following about the creation of the strip:

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

Awards and nominations

Year	Novel	Award	Result	References
2011 - 2012	Big Nate: In A Class By Himself	Great Stone Face Book Award - Grades 4-6	Won
2012	Big Nate: Strikes Again	Colorado Children's Book Award - Junior Novel	Nominated
2012	Big Nate: In A Class By Himself	Kentucky Bluegrass Award - Grades 3-5	Won
2013	Big Nate: Goes For Broke	Buckeye Children's Book Award - Grades 3-5	Nominated
2013	Big Nate: In A Class By Himself	Garden State Children's Book Award - Children's Fiction	Won
2013	Big Nate: In A Class By Himself	Golden Archer Award - Intermediate	Nominated
2013	Big Nate: In A Class By Himself	Young Reader's Choice Award - Junior/Grades 4-6	Nominated
2015	Big Nate: Flips Out	Golden Archer Award	Nominated
2017	Big Nate series	Milner Award	Won

History

Big Nate has been running from January 7, 1991, to December 31, 2017, before going into hiatus which ended on July 16, 2018.

Trivia

• The series takes place in a fictional town called Rackleff which is located in Maine, despite there being a street called Rackleff which is in Maine and a senior community called that in Canby, Oregon.
• When it comes to the title of each Big Nate book, every comic collection has the word “big” lowercase while actual novels have “BIG” uppercase.
• Almost all Big Nate books have Jeff Kinney's quote, "Big Nate is funny, big time.", on the top of the front cover.
• "Big Nate" is named after the author's older brother, Johnathan. He realized the name had the name "Nathan" within it, and soon after, he started calling him "Big Nate".
• The comic strip went on a brief hiatus from December 31th, 2017 to July 15th, 2018.