From Stellar to Stale: Big Nate’s Timeline

Hey guys, CR here!

I have a great page for you today.

So, it’s not a secret that Big Nate has gotten worse. From the boring arcs to bad characters, it's very stale.

But why did it decline? When did it start? Let’s find out.

Ladies and gentlemen, the complete timeline of Big Nate!

1991-1994: The Start
When Lincoln Peirce started making the strip, it was very different than it was today. But why?

The characters were a lot different. Here are some examples:

Jenny
Jenny was a bit different. She was actually nice to Nate, and rejected him politely, at least most of the time. She wasn’t over the top crazy like she became in later strips.

Francis
Francis was also a different character. He used to be smart, but also somewhat clueless. Although he was smart, he didn’t have his very smart type character later in the strips. For example, he didn’t call out grammar like he did later.

There were more, but those were some main ones.

Another thing that was very different was the comedy. The comedy seemed more aimed for adults than kids.

There was once an arc in 1992 where Nate and Francis took an inappropriate quiz after sneaking into Ellen’s room. This was obviously not in “The Complete Big Nate 2” There were also some other jokes that were meant to cater to adults. You could never get away with some of these jokes now.

Lastly, the situations. The situations tended to be a lot more realistic later. For example, unfair teachers. School dances. Bus stops. There was no “Chad grows a beard.”

These years were pretty good. Although the art wasn’t great, the characters tended to be a lot less one dimensional and the situations were a lot more relatable. The arcs tended to be really forgettable though. But, at the same time, arcs weren’t really a thing, it was more daily jokes with some short stories. But this was just the start.

1995-1999: Morphing into Regular Times
The rest of the 90s were also pretty good.

Big Nate started to form more into how it is today. The characters started to resemble how they are today.

Jenny became more violent. Nate became more jerkish. Teddy almost started to become a normal in the group (although Francis appeared more).

We also got the Angie arc, which was considered the highlight of the 90s for some. It was nice to be able to see Nate mature a bit and get a girlfriend.

These times started to grow more memorable strips too. Characters like School Picture Guy, Gina, and Spitsy appeared during this time. They also had a lot of Nate's hand drawn comics during this time, something that doesn't appear often in Big Nate nowadays.

2000-2004: It REALLY Gets Good
This age really started to transform to modern Big Nate.

These times also had a few notable changes.

For one thing, Big Nate now started to get more arcs.

Nate's hand drawn strips started to disappear.

Back in the old days of BN, most jokes would be daily jokes, with some stories mixed in. Now, Big Nate would have more arcs, which are small stories, usually about a week long.

Another really big thing is that the character models started to become a lot more similar to today.

Often in old strips, characters would have really thick or thin lines, or have big heads.

But now, the characters became a lot more similar, besides being a bit more short.

Here’s an example: This was another great age for Big Nate. The arcs became a lot more memorable than before, and were about to get even better.

2005-2013: The Golden Age
So, these years were great for Big Nate. In fact, many think these are the best years.

The arcs here were a lot better. They didn’t feel stretched or unnecessary. They were actually funny here!

The characters were really good too. They were actually somewhat more likeable than they were in the old days.

I’m not going to dive into this too much. But if you’d like to hear more, click this.

2014-2018: Progressively Getting Worse
So, the arcs here started to become a lot more… stale. Or just bad. While 2014 was ok, it started to get pretty bad in 2017.

Let’s take a look at the Valentines arc from 2017.

While this arc started with some excitement, it started to get worse. This arc became extremely stretched.

For example, at one point, Nate was just talking to Dee Dee. This lasted a really long time, with at one point, the same joke going on for two days.

It was obvious Lincoln was doing this to stretch the arc. But, this didn’t have much of a positive effect.

One commenter named @Jeff0811 posted a comment with some criticism.

Don’t take my word for it, but I am pretty sure Lincoln later responded saying that he knew people would like the strip the way it is (don’t quote me on this since I’m not completely sure.)

Other people commented on this too. Many were getting bored on this one topic and wanted something new.

Although not many people commented criticism on the strip, this was a wake up call to some that the strips were getting worse.

In 2018, rating comics was a thing for a little bit. Many people started to rate comics. Due to this, Big Nate was starting to get more criticism. Many low ratings were in the comments. Later in 2019, due to Neptune_Ninja_Comics, this was brought back.

Rating comics wasn’t much of a success, but it shows that people knew Big Nate was getting worse. But no one said that much about it.

This all leads up to 2019.

2019: The Worst Year of Big Nate
In my opinion, this is the worst year of big Nate.

There are a few reasons, but here are the main ones.

Even when rating comics came back, the ratings were really low too.

Bad and repeated arcs
This is the main reason. Most of the arcs have been bad or repeated. A lot of the new comics had concepts that were repeated or done before. They will usually just be the same arcs, but with a few different words.

Wasted potential/bad endings
Another thing that happened this year was horrible endings. A lot of times, arcs would start with an interesting concept but then be ruined due to an ending. These happened very often.

Bad characters
The characters in 2019 were pretty 1-dimensional. Meaning, they would all have the same personality. Most characters would just be there to react to Nate, usually throwing a “smug” face at the camera after he does something weird. Another thing is that characters would just be used as tools. For example, Chad. He morphed into a food obsessed character, who usually just popped into existence whenever someone mentioned food. Characters were also derailed pretty often, such as Mr. Galvin became a big jerk for some reason. I still don’t get why this happened.

Here are some arcs that show this:

•The Sherman/Gina Arc (May 6, 2019 - June 22, 2019)

•2017 Valentines Day (February 6, 2017 - April 1, 2017)

•The Lucky Pencil Arc (March 18, 2019 - April 6, 2019)

I’m not going to go into this more, but if you want more info click here.

There was only about 1 memorable arc this year, in my opinion. And it wasn’t even that great either.

It came to the point where people were happy about reruns.

2020: Stale?
2020 wasn’t as bad as 2019. But it was more… stale.

There were some of the same problems. Chad was still being used as a lame comedy tool. The arcs were repeated.

But the main problem is that the arcs were just.. boring.

A lot of people found themselves checking the strip less.

A lot less criticism appeared in the comment section.

This could be because it was boring, but it’s also likely because you get hated a lot if you give criticism on Big Nate.

Big Nate had gone stale. There was not much spice in the comics.

Why did it die?
So, why did big Nate die? Well, I think I know why.

Burnout.

Lincoln admitted in a different interview that he was having more trouble coming up with new and funny arcs,

And after writing a strip for 29 years, it’s obviously not going to be great.

It could also be because Lincoln stopped caring about Big Nate. He had a 6 month break from BN. He claimed it was due to a personal issue, but it could have been from losing interest in the strip.

I have a feeling big Nate will end soon. Lincoln is suspected to have burnout, and he started a new series. And a sequel is coming.

But, what if it doesn’t end?

What needs to get better?
If Big Nate needs to get better, it needs some permanent changes. Instead of the boring arcs that end in nothing, maybe make some permanent changes. Nate moves! Nate gets a dog! Nate makes a new friend! School closes! Nate moves on to 7th grade! Nate meets his mom! I don’t know, but something to spice up the strip that isn’t stretched. Commenter Neptune_Ninja_Comics even suggests ending Big Nate with Nate going into 7th grade.

Conclusion
That’s all! Thanks for reading.

I hope BN can get better, it was a great strip when I was younger and I want an improvement. I don’t really count on it though.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

This is CR, signing off

-CR