Community Activity:Big Nate Halloween Costume Tier Lists

Hey everyone, Zach here again with another fun activity for the Halloween Horrors Festival!

We all love (or have loved) Big Nate here, so I spent some time reading through every Big Nate Halloween arc there is and compiling every costume (of mostly major characters). I created a tier list maker for them, which you can find here: https://tiermaker.com/create/big-nate-halloween-costumes-637010

'''Please rate the costumes based on how cool they are, how funny they are, or how good the arc they are in was (if you've read them like I have recently). Feel free to make more than one and clarify how you are ranking them. Have fun! I love talking about Big Nate!'''

Tier Lists
''' Put your tier lists below in the gallery! ''' (ALSO FEEL FREE TO EXPLAIN YOUR RATINGS, IT IS ENCOURAGED!)

Zach
For S Tier, I put the classics. The old Big Nate strips are definitely by far my favorites; the stories were better, everything was better, so the most prominent ones of those (first costumes of Nate, Francis, Jenny, Sheila, and Teddy, and really good arcs like the Halloween party and Nate and Francis dressing up as each other) get that tier.

For A Tier, I put the old ones that weren't as great as the ones in S tier, but are still really good (Nate dressing as Marty was super funny but unoriginal, Marty dressing up was unique but not as classic, Nate and Angie having a couple costume was decent, Nate with the paper bag because his dad was handing out bad treats was really clever, another old Teddy appearance, and Francis from the party and another Jenny appearance) and I put Peter's first and only Halloween appearance as well as Nate's costume while chaperoning him because that arc was really notable to me and unique as it featured Peter instead of Francis and Teddy again. These are the highest ranking colored costumes.

For B Tier, I put the classics that were bland and/or were just another costume for another year. Most of these are the period where it is year after year of the reused 'Marty giving out bad treats' gag. (2000s) I also put Chad's first Halloween costume appearance because I thought it was a really good use of Chad's adorableness trait, and I just had to include a classic 'Nate-just-said-something-really-dumb-but-in-a-funny-way' Francis facial expression.

For C Tier, I put colored-comic costumes that stood out somewhat but still aren't the best: (Gina and Randy's first costume appearances | Francis dressing up as the scientist and boring some kid to tears was pretty funny. It was similar, but not the same, to Peter's costume and was only a one off Sunday strip so that lowers it some | Nate as the genie was pretty funny and unique, but not the best thing ever | Teddy as the cat in the hat was kinda cool, and just his expression from the fruit roll up sells it for me :p)

For D Tier, I put all of the bland 'just another costume for another year' colored costumes. There is nothing notable about these, it's just a random costume that Peirce picked for each character every year. They do have some funny moments in their respective arcs, but nothing that makes them as legendary as the the OG ones. I can't be like "oh yeah, Teddy as robinhood, remember everything about that one?" Nobody does. I also included some filler ones like Nate and Teddy's costumes for the Sunday strip mentioned with Francis as the scientist and Nate as Gina because although it was decently funny, the idea had been overused at that point. The first one with Nate and Francis was so good, Peirce, but that doesn't mean doing it again with a different character gives us the same effect.

For F Tier, I put the costumes that fit into the categories of: yep, definitely reused, and yep, definitely not funny. (This is all my opinion, sorry if you really like Marty in a speedo.) Nate as Ellen was for one thing, only a Sunday strip and didn't even become Nate's actual costume that year, and for a second thing was reused from the previously mentioned Nate and Francis dressing up as each other arc yet again. It was kind of funny and one of the classic comics, but not one of my favorites. Marty in a speedo was pretty funny to look at, but once again only a Sunday strip and not the funniest. The original 'Marty dresses up' arc was really good though. Lastly, the worst costume in Big Nate in my opinion is the second Chad costume appearance. Not only was Chad in almost the same costume as the first time, but also did almost the exact same thing. It was still funny, but I would rather something different happen.

My opinion on the Halloween arcs overall: The classic 90s strips were by far the best in most aspects in my opinion. It's all so original, funny, and nostalgic to me. Getting into the 2000s, the strips are still good but Marty giving out bad treats was used almost every year in that decade. Halloween seemed so awesome in the early years of Big Nate but kind of fizzled out and got less important later on. The 2010s for Halloween in Big Nate was mostly just Nate and friends dressing up as any random thing and not much excitement or new things happened. Many years even blocked out Halloween for an already occurring arc which is fine but it would be cool to always have holiday strips every year. I think the problem with Big Nate is that Peirce uses a really amazing and creative and funny idea but then uses it again and again, year after year, making it more boring. His strips are seriously great when there is a new and never before seen idea and I think that's why most people absolutely love the older strips and don't like the newer strips. Of course, I still find all Big Nate strips funny even if not that much, but the newer ones aren't as awesome as the older ones because of this. I'll probably always read Big Nate and I always still like it. This has been my opinion, not me saying that I dislike it in any way, because I don't. I love Big Nate and all the stuff in it, and I love talking about the strip like this. I read through like every Big Nate Halloween arc today and it really got me in the Halloween AND Big Nate mood. This was fun to write, it's like writing an essay except I'm actually passionate about it lol. Thanks for reading! :D