Big Nate is an American comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce

Lincoln Peirce

Lincoln Peirce is a mexican 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....

. The strip is about a boy named Nate Wright, a rebellious and energetic sixth-grader, and his classmates and teachers. Nate is portrayed as a boy with little interest in studies or conforming to standards. Because of this, he often ends up in detention. Some of the staff at the school include Mrs. Godfrey (Nate's social studies

Social studies

Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...

 teacher and chief faculty nemesis), art teacher Mr. Rosa, Principal Nichols, Mrs. Shipulski, and Mrs. Czerwicki. Nate's best friends include Francis Pope and Teddy Ortiz. In recent strips they formed a garage band

Garage band

The term garage band can refer to:* A band that performs garage rock* GarageBand, audio production software published by Apple Inc.* GarageBand.com, a website that helps publicize emerging bands...

 named Enslave the Mollusk, which appears to have broken up. A description from GoComics

GoComics

GoComics is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips and cartoons...

 of Big Nate is:
Answering questions from fans in the Washington Post, Peirce revealed the following about the creation of the strip:
The character is also the focus of a virtual island in the online children's game Poptropica

Poptropica

Poptropica is an online game, role-playing game made by Jeff Kinney targeted at children ages 6 to 15, where players can travel, play games, compete in head-to-head competition, and communicate safely with each other...

. Three chapter books have been released with at least one more planned. The first in a series of collections of previously published comic strips is also available.

Other characters

• Francis Pope: Nate's number 1 friend, Francis can be a very intelligent guy in which Nate can get upset about. Francis often makes fun of Nate, but that's how they operate as said in book 2. Francis actually likes Ms. Godfrey unlike Nate. Francis likes Artur unlike Nate. Francis is also in the band " Enslave the Mollusk " along with Nate, Teddy and Artur.

This is what Licoln Pierce said about Francis in a blog: Francis has been a part of the comic strip since the very beginning. I wanted Nate to have a best friend/sidekick, and Francis was the kid I came up with. He’s named for a real-life kid I taught years ago, when I was a high school art teacher...but Francis’s personality is entirely his own. Because conflict can lead to a lot of funny situations, I made Francis very different from Nate. He’s an academic overachiever, never gets into trouble (unless Nate drags him into it), and loves cats. I’ve always thought of Francis as Big Nate’s version of Jiminy Cricket: he’s like Nate’s conscience.

• Teddy Ortiz: Nate's number "1A" friend, Teddy is a funny, yo-momma expert and annoying to Nate at irregular points in time as is Francis. Teddy often makes jokes especially about Nate. Teddy likes Artur unlike Nate. Teddy is also in the " Enslave the Mollusk " along with Nate, Artur and Francis. According to Nate in "Big Nate in a class by himself", he taught Nate how to say "Mrs. Godfrey is fat" in Spanish.This is what Licoln said about Teddy in a blog. A few years later, I brought Teddy into the strip. At that point, the strip had only three kid characters who appeared with any regularity: Nate, Francis, and Jenny. I thought the strip needed some fresh energy, and there were stories I wanted to tell that needed more characters to make them work. Unlike Francis, though, Teddy’s personality wasn’t fully formed at first. Initially I thought he might become a rival of Nate’s, but instead I decided to make Nate, Francis & Teddy a unit, sort of like the 3 Musketeers. Over time, Teddy became more of the fun-loving jokester he is today. He’s still a very versatile character, though, because depending on what’s happening at any given time, Teddy can behave more like Francis, or more like Nate.

• Marty Wright: Nate's middle-aged, single father. He plays golf, albeit very poorly, and will never allow Nate to have a dog, despite Nate's incessant requests. Formerly known simply as 'Dad', his name was revealed to be Marty at a family get-together.
• Ellen Wright: Nate's fifteen-year-old sister. She is self-absorbed and constantly at odds with Nate about almost everything. Nate finds her very obnoxious, and his teachers wish he was more like her. Ellen annoys Nate by watching figure-skating, when he wants to watch hockey. For a period of time, Nate enjoyed watched figure-skating because of Sasha Cohen, an attractive female skater.

• Top 5 Most Annoying Things About Ellen! (From Big Nate in a Class by Himself)
• 5) She is constantly begging Dad to buy her a cat.
• 4) She wears perfume that makes her smell like a gift shop full of scented candles.
• 3) She got a karaoke machine for her 12th birthday, and she still hasn't outgrown it.
• 2) All her hair care products are single-handedly destroying the ozone layer.
• 1) Nobody except me realizes how completely obnoxious she is.

• Mrs. Catherine Godfrey: Nate's ultimate nemesis, his social studies teacher. As seen in Big Nate in a Class by Himself, Nate has a list of 20 nicknames for Mrs. Godfrey:

1. Godzilla

Godzilla

is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

2. Boring.com
3. Pass the Gravy
4. She Who Must Not Be Named

Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort is the main antagonist of the Harry Potter series written by British author J. K. Rowling. Voldemort first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was released in 1997...

5. Dragon Breath
6. I Can't Believe She's Not Butter
7. Dark Side of the Moon
8. Extra Crispy
9. There's No Place Like Home

There's No Place Like Home

"There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1, 2 & 3" is the season finale of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost, consisting of the 12th through 14th episodes. They are also the 84th through 86th episodes of the show overall...

work
10. Ozone
11. Queen Kong

King Kong

King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...

12. Gas Station
13. Big Bang
14. Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...

15. Wrecking Ball
16. Dullapalooza
17. El Guapo

El Guapo

El Guapo can refer to:* El Guapo , a comic book character and a member of the superhero team X-Statix.* El Guapo, Miranda State, a town located at Miranda State, Venezuela....

18. Pardon my Nachos
19. Jaws

Jaws

Jaws may refer to:* Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth* JAWS , Japan Anthropology Workshop* Jaws , a novel by Peter Benchley** Jaws , a series of films arising from the novel...

20. Venus de Silo

Venus de Milo

Aphrodite of Milos , better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly...

• Mrs. Hickson: The school librarian. She is a middle-aged woman who does not tolerate insolence from anyone. She made her debut appearance in the novel "Big Nate Strikes Again".

• Jenny: Nate's classmate since grade one. She is his biggest crush
  Puppy love
  Puppy love is an informal term for feelings of love or infatuation felt by young people during childhood and adolescence, so-called for its resemblance to the adoring, worshipful affection that may be felt by a puppy. 'Simple infatuation is often called a "crush" or "puppy love"...
  
  —however, she despises Nate (though Nate is obtusely oblivious).
• Artur: A very intelligent and very well liked Belorussian exchange student in Nate's class. Jenny's liking for Artur, and Artur's ability to beat Nate at chess, makes him arch rival to Nate. Artur speaks somewhat broken English as a second language. He is very innocent, gentle, kind, and unassuming. He regards Nate as his best friend, and is generally unaware of Nate's dislike of him. He moved back to his home country of Turkey
  Turkey
  Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
  
   recently for a period of time.
• Mr. Ken Rosa: Nate's art teacher. Mr. Rosa is a soft spoken, optimistic, and mild-mannered man. As a result, Nate enjoys a lot of freedom in art class. He also enjoys sketching pictures of his teachers.
• "School Picture Guy": Not only showing up every year as the school picture photographer, this character often shows up in unexpected places doing odd jobs such as a birthday clown or a school board meeting reporter. "School Picture Guy" often has some amusing nuggets of wisdom about the job he is doing, or a nugget of wisdom for whatever is on Nate's mind at the moment.
• Kelly: Nate's ex-girlfriend. Not seen since she broke up with him. (Because he broke up with her via a note written on the back of a detention slip.)
• Chester: A person who appears to be too old for his grade. Appears briefly when Nate talks about losing in dodgeball in "Big Nate Strikes Again".
• Gina Hemphill-Toms: One of Nate's schoolmates and rivals. Gina is P.S. 38's resident know-it-all
  Know-it-all
  A know-it-all or know-all is a person who believes that he/she has an accurate comprehension of a topic and/or situation when in reality, his/her comprehension is inaccurate and limited. This belief may or may not be outwardly expressed. The German word Besserwisser is also used in some languages,...
  
   and over-achiever, and often finds herself in academic competition with fellow overachiever Francis. Nate and Gina tend to despise each other with a passion, viewing each others' personalities and work ethics as terrible. In recent strips, it has been hinted that Nate actually likes Gina deep down, but denies his feelings for her because he believes that he hates everything about her. Ironically, Nate's behavior toward Gina of despising her but hiding feelings for her is identical to what he thinks is his relationship with Jenny, in that he believes Jenny acts like she hates him but really likes him deep down. Of course, Nate is again oblivious to the similarity. Nate listed her as number 1 on his list of worst potential project partners. In Big Nate Strikes Again, she ruins the fleeceball team by using the name Kuddle Kittens, angering Nate. She first appeared in 1999, but looks different than now Gina. Her only known family is four older brothers released on March 2, 2011.
• Cap n' Salty: A talking like pirate. His favorite hobby is catching lobsters under the sea. Cap’n Salty is a character Lincoln Pierce created exclusively for the children's webside Poptropica.com, where “Big Nate Island” is one of the features. However, he is only an implied character in the strip itself.
• Chief Meteorologist Wink Summers: Never seen or heard from, but Nate constantly calls him and complains whenever any part of the weather is not to his liking or if Wink's forecast is wrong. He transferred to weekend meteorologist in August, 2011. His real name is Dick Schipp.
• Spitsy: The neighborhood dog owned by Mr. Eustis, the man next door to the Wrights. Nate likes to go to the woods and hang out with Spitsy. He is "the ultimate dog nerd
  Nerd
  Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
  
  ", for he is afraid of mailmen, eats his poop, and he had to go to the doctor when he swallowed a tennis ball to get his stomach pumped. He has a crush on Francis' cat Pickles.
• Randy Betancourt: One of Nate's other rivals. In Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
  Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
  Big Nate: In a Class by Himself is a children's novel written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce. It was published in 2010 by HarperCollins. The story centers around Big Nate.-Plot:...
  
  , Randy got Nate into detention in the chess club bake sale. He threw a lemon square at Mrs. Godfrey and blamed Nate on it. Then Nate threw his dad's yogurt coconut pie at Randy. In Big Nate Strikes Again, he creates a fleeceball team called the Raptors. The day before the game, Randy ran into a table Nate was carrying and got a bloody nose. In the game, Randy stomps on Nate's foot for payback time after he grounds out. His first appearance in the comic strip was on October 31.
• Gordie: Ellen's ex-boyfriend. He shares Nate's love for the comic book 'Femme Fatality', and owns nearby comic shop Klassic Komix. In big nate On a Roll, it is revealed he has a boss named Wayne that looks like a caveman.
• Chad: He's one of Nate's good friends. Chad's appearance is a chubby kid with red hair and freckles. He is obsessed with eating and food. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself; Nate mistakens him for Todd. A smiley face is often seen on his shirt.
• Sheila Stapleton : Is a friend of Nate and Jenny. Hasn't been seen for a while.
• Coach John: He is a substitute of Coach Calhoun. He is a soccer coach of Nate. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself, Nate wears his pants [which are huge]. In a comic it is revealed that Coach John wears a toupee.

Enslave the Mollusk

Enslave the Mollusk (ETM) is a garage band

Garage band

The term garage band can refer to:* A band that performs garage rock* GarageBand, audio production software published by Apple Inc.* GarageBand.com, a website that helps publicize emerging bands...

 featured in Big Nate. It features Big Nate as vocalist and drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

, with best friends Francis on electric guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and Teddy on keyboards

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 and lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

. EtM appears to be a rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band, although they only have three original songs, "Hot Cross Buns," "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "I Fought the Law". Artur became lead singer in the band after singing "I Fought the Law" beautifully. They also play cover music.

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

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

Collections

Four print collections were published.

Title	Publication Date	ISBN	Publisher
Add More Babes!	1992	ISBN 0-88687-682-6	Topper Books
I Smell a Pop Quiz!	2008	ISBN 0-615-19719-1	United Media United Media United Media is a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. It syndicates 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core business is the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association...
Big Nate: From the Top	2010	ISBN 978-1-4494-0232-7	Andrews McMeel Publishing Andrews McMeel Publishing Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC is a company which publishes books, calendars, and related toys...
Big Nate Out Loud"	2011	ISBN 978-1-4494-0718-6	Andrews McMeel Publishing Andrews McMeel Publishing Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC is a company which publishes books, calendars, and related toys...

In addition, there were three E-book

E-book

An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...

s, all from 2002: "Dibs on This Chair", "Pray for a Firedrill" and "Big Nate...Makes a Splash". This was described two years later by Lincoln as a "failed experiment".

Chapter books

Book series

1. Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
   Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
   Big Nate: In a Class by Himself is a children's novel written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce. It was published in 2010 by HarperCollins. The story centers around Big Nate.-Plot:...
   
     (March 23, 2010)
2. Big Nate Strikes Again  (October 19, 2010)
3. Big Nate On a Roll  (August 16, 2011)
4. Big Nate Goes for Broke  (March 20, 2012)

Other books

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

The book, Big Nate: In a Class by Himself

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself is a children's novel written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce. It was published in 2010 by HarperCollins. The story centers around Big Nate.-Plot:...

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