Lincoln Peirce

Lincoln Peirce (pronounced “purse”) is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the successful Big Nate comic strip, which has also been collected and published Big Nate comic strip collections. The strip debuted in 1991 in 135 newspapers, and currently has a client list of over 400 newspapers worldwide. Lincoln Peirce is also the author/illustrator of a series of Big Nate novels for young readers. He has also written a number of animated shorts that have appeared on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and is the creator of the Big Nate animated series, as well as a series of Big Nate activity books.

Peirce was born on October 23, 1963 in the city of Ames, Iowa. His family moved East in 1964, and Peirce grew up in Durham, New Hampshire. He developed a fascination with comic strips at a young age and often cites Charles Schulz’s Peanuts as his greatest inspiration. At Colby College in Waterville, Maine, he studied art & art history.

After completing the Big Nate novel series in 2016, Peirce began work on Max & the Midknights, a comedic adventure story set in the Middle Ages. It is the first in a projected three-book series published by Crown Books for Young Readers. Max & the Midknights was published on January 8, 2019, and went on to spend sixteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, peaking at #2. The second book in the series, Max & the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins was released on December 1, 2020.

Related Exhibitions: BAM! It’s A Picture Book: The Art Behind Graphic Novels (2013)