Lincoln Peirce - Big Nate on a Roll

You mean the name Lincoln Peirce doesn’t ring a bell?  Really?

The first thing I have to say is you need to read more comic strips.

The second thing is you are missing out.

I came across Big Nate about 15 years ago. I loved the little guy and his adventures through school. If he isn’t in your local paper or you don’t get a paper you can follow him and others at Comics.com.  In fact, that is how I stumbled across Big Nate – through the internet.

I dragged Kae, the wife, to this. I was excited. As with any character you’ve been watching or reading for over a decade, you feel like you know them and they are part of your family. I wanted to introduce the wife to the old family friend, Nate.

Disappointingly, the only book of Lincoln Pierce’s at the bookstore was the current one, Big Nate on a Roll. Now my dear sweet loving wife will tell you that I just might be mentally mature enough for this book and knowing how you all take her side on everything (!), I’m sure you’ll agree. I was hoping to get some of his complications from his daily strip signed too.

Lincoln has a gentle voice and had the kids sit on the floor as he talked and drew for them.

(No I did NOT sit on the floor! See you agree with Kae.  Everyone love’s Kae. The only reason I get invited anywhere is because they want to see Kae. Ugh!!)

It was interesting to hear him discuss the evolution of the character; both physically and mentally.

When he started signing, I felt silly getting in line with people that were half my height. So I waited off to the side until the line was just a couple of little ones.

I handed over the book and it was the first time he had to look up to see who it was for.  I told him I enjoyed this strip and he smiled. He said usually he’s meeting kids that read his books that moved on to the strip. It was nice to have someone know him from the strip first.

I then followed up on the morphing of the character. I know handwriting changes over time and I figured drawing does too. He leaned back and said as you become accustomed to drawing the same character day after day, you create some short cuts. I then asked if you have to consciously try to avoid changing the look. He said a little but you also want to do some changes as the character matures.

Just then a few little one appeared and butted in front of me. Trying hard not to prove the wife right and lower my maturity to their level, I said good bye and collected my wife.  She smiled knowing on the inside, I was just a little one jumping up and down in joy. My calm demeanor was not fooling her.

AH