Never in my life did I anticipate Lincoln Peirce’s Big Nate would become one of the best-selling series of kids graphic novels, and a personal favorite of my son throughout first, second and third grade! As a young strapping lad, I churned the butter, kindled the fire, and used the outhouse while reading Big Nate as a comic strip alongside Peanuts, Pickles and Dilbert (I’m still trying to untangle how Dilbert became preposterously popular among my 5th grade friends in the late 90s, but that’s a story for another time). This isn’t a knock on Peirce or Big Nate – I just never guessed the strip would re-enter my life 20+ years later as an absolute comics juggernaut!
The Big Nate comic strip debuted in 1991 and enjoyed plenty of success before really exploding to another level when Peirce released the first Big Nate novelization in 2010. This means new readers effectively have the choice to start with the classic comic strips, or with a series of illustrated chapter books, a la the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. While I’m loathe to recommend literally anything over comics, the 8 book novel series (which, let’s be real, is also full of comics broken up by slightly longer blocks of text) is a more focused narrative with a clearer sense of building off the previous volume. The comic strips are very easily accessible, but more in the model of Calvin and Hobbes where virtually any strip could be your first because that was the daily newspaper environment they were working in (newspapers, kids, are like TikToks that we printed out and then used to wrap Christmas presents). For most kids, whether they start with the novels or comics, once they get a taste of Big Nate’s world, they’re going to want to hop between formats to laugh at more.
Regardless of your approach, Nate Wright’s 6th grade antics are a highly entertaining way to encourage a 6 to 11 year old audience to read more. Plus, there are now animated TV series and a musical. Below you’ll find a complete guide to the world of Big Nate, from novels to graphic novels to comic strips to Lincoln Peirce written fantasy comics!
Big Nate Novels Reading Order
Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
Collects: Big Nate Novel #1
Note that this book is also titled Big Nate: The Boy With the Biggest Head in the World in regions outside the USA. Again, the eight novels should be read in sequence, whereas the comic strips are less impacted by chronology.
Big Nate Strikes Again
Collects: Big Nate Novel #2
Big Nate on a Roll
Collects: Big Nate Novel #3
Big Nate Goes for Broke
Collects: Big Nate Novel #4
Big Nate Flips Out
Collects: Big Nate Novel #5
Big Nate: In the Zone
Collects: Big Nate Novel #6
Big Nate Lives It Up
Collects: Big Nate Novel #7
Big Nate Blasts Off
Collects: Big Nate Novel #8
Big Nate Comics Reading Order
Big Nate: From the Top
Collects: August 28, 2006 to April 1, 2007.
“From the Top” is the first volume in the modern colored collections of Peirce’s comic strip, but as you’ll note from the dates, it doesn’t run the first collection all the way back to Big Nate’s debut in 1991. The good news is you absolutely don’t need to worry about that! As the collections go on, they’ll start incorporating more of the “classic” Big Nate strips. There are a handful of collections from before this point, but starting “From the Top” is the easiest way to keep tabs on everything for nearly the last 20 years!
If this feels off to you (the series started in 1991 and so will I dagnabbit!), I’d recommend starting with:
The Epic Omnibus collection includes Big Nate strips from 1991 through 2015, as well as insights from Lincoln Peirce and a Q&A with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney. You could argue the 500 page hardcover collection is less portable than the likes of “From the Top,” but that never stopped my son from lugging this behemoth with him on every family vacation.
Big Nate: Out Loud
Collects: April 2, 2007 to November 4, 2007.
Starting in 2020, Big Nate also started releasing Two-In-One paperback collections (so for example, the preceding “From the Top” and “Out Loud” collections in one book. This begins with Big Nate Stays Classy: Two Books in One. This does tend to be a better value than purchasing each individual book separately, but it’s unclear if Andrews McMeel has plans to continue to publish the 2-in-1 approach to the series since no new books have been added since 2023. . I’ll list the full available two-in-one collections following the list of individual volumes.
Big Nate And Friends
Collects: Various strips from 1997 to 2007 focused on Nate’s best friends, Francis and Teddy, and of course Artur and Gina.
Big Nate: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Collects strips from November 5, 2007 to June 8, 2008.
Big Nate: Here Goes Nothing
Collects strips from June 9, 2008 to January 9, 2009.
Big Nate Makes the Grade
Collects strips that are school-related.
Big Nate: All Work and No Play (A Collection of Big Nate Sundays)
Collects: Sunday strips from 1998 to 2000.
For those under the age of a million, Sunday strips refer to special weekly version of a newspaper that included a much larger selection of comics, usually in color (as opposed to the shorter black-and-whites of the work week). If you’re ever reading Calvin and Hobbes, or here Big Nate, this is why strips are typically black-and-white and 3 to 4 panels, whereas Sundays are full page color extravaganzas! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take out my dentures, eat some soup and lay down for bed at 7 p.m.
Big Nate: I Can’t Take It!
Collects Sunday strips from 2000 to 2004.
Big Nate: Genius Mode
Collects strips from January 11, 2009 to August 9, 2009.
Big Nate: Game On!
A selection of sports-centric Big Nate comics.
Big Nate: Great Minds Think Alike
Collects strips from 2002–2006.
Big Nate: Mr. Popularity
Collects strips from August 10, 2009 to March 7, 2010.
Big Nate: The Crowd Goes Wild
Collects strips from March 8, 2010 to October 9, 2010.
The “Greatest Hits” collection includes three digital-only volumes such as Big Nate: Dibs on This Chair and Big Nate: Pray for a Fire Drill. You do not need to buy those separately if you have the Greatest Hits collection here.
Big Nate: Say Good-Bye To Dork City
Collects strips from October 10, 2010 to May 14, 2011.
Big Nate: Welcome To My World
Collects strips from May 15, 2011 to October 30, 2011.
Big Nate: Thunka, Thunka, Thunka
Collects strips from October 31, 2011 to April 21, 2012.
Big Nate: Revenge of the Cream Puffs
Collects strips from April 22, 2012 to October 13, 2012.
Big Nate: What’s a Little Noogie Between Friends?
Collects strips from October 14, 2012 to April 13, 2013.
Big Nate: A Good Old Fashioned Wedgie
Collects strips from April 21, 2013 to October 5, 2013
Big Nate: Silent But Deadly
Collects strips from October 6, 2013, to March 29, 2014.
Big Nate Goes Bananas
Collects strips from March 30, 2014 to September 13, 2014
Big Nate: Payback Time!
Collects strips from September 22, 2014 to March 14, 2015.
Big Nate: Hug It Out!
Collects strips from March 15, 2015 to September 13, 2015.
Big Nate: Blow the Roof Off!
Collects strips from September 14, 2015 to February 28, 2016.
Big Nate: The Gerbil Ate My Homework
Collects strips from February 29, 2016 to September 4, 2016.
Big Nate: In Your Face
Collects strips from September 5, 2016 to February 25, 2017.
Big Nate: Aloha!
Collects strips from February 26, 2017 to September 2, 2017.
Big Nate: Beware of Low Flying Corn Muffins
Collects strips from September 3, 2017 to September 9, 2018
Big Nate: Release the Hounds!
Collects strips from September 10, 2018 to February 23, 2019.
Big Nate: Nailed It!
Collects strips from February 24, 2019 to August 11, 2019.
Big Nate: Move It or Lose It!
Collects strips from August 12, 2019 to February 15, 2020.
Big Nate: This Means War!
Collects strips from February 17, 2020 to August 16, 2020, and August 23, 2020.
Big Nate: Remain Calm!
Collects strips from September 6, 2020 to February 14, 21, and 28, March 22 to 27, and April 19 to May 1, 2021.
Big Nate: Attack of the Cheez Funk Breath
Collects strips from February 15, 2021 to August 28, 2021
Big Nate: No Harm Done!
Collects strips from August 29, 2021 to 2022.
Big Nate: Code Red!
Collects strips from 2022.
Big Nate Two-In-One Comics Collections
Big Nate Stays Classy
Collects Big Nate: From the Top and Big Nate: Out Loud in one book.
Big Nate: Top Dog
Collects Big Nate: And Friends and Big Nate: Makes the Grade in one book.
Big Nate: Very Funny!
Collects Big Nate: Welcome to My World and Big Nate: Thunka, Thunka, Thunka in one book.
Big Nate: No Worries!
Collects Big Nate: Revenge of the Cream Puffs and Big Nate: What’s a Little Noogie Between Friends? in one book.
Big Nate TV Series Graphic Novels
Alongside the launch of the Big Nate animated TV series, some episodes were reproduced as graphic novels. Each collection covers about three episodes of the show.
Big Nate: Destined for Awesomeness
Big Nate: Next Stop, Superstardom!
Max and the Midknights Reading Order
For fans of Big Nate, Peirce also has the highly enjoyable series of fantasy graphic novels, Max and Midnights. Like Nate, Max can be found as an animated series on Paramount. My second oldest probably reads these three graphic novels harder than anything this side of Dog Man.
Max and the Midknights
Collects: Max and the Midknights Book 1
Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
Collects: Max and the Midknights Book 2
Max and the Midknights: The Tower of Time
Collects: Max and the Midknights Book 3
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