Comic Strips

The Last Big Nate – Until Tomorrow

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D. D. Degg Published: June 13, 2026 Updated: June 13, 2026 1 minute 8 comments

As has been noted today is the last weekday Big Nate as cartoonist Lincoln Peirce has decided to ease his comic strip workload to give himself more time for other projects. Let’s state upfront that Peirce will continue to create Big Nate for the Sunday Funnies.

Today’s final Big Nate daily begins as if, maybe, it will turn into a sort of farewell…

but doesn’t.

Chloe Swedberg at The Portland Press Herald interviewed the cartoonist for his local newspaper (or here).

“I feel really lucky I’ve been able to do it as long as I have. And I’m enjoying having a little extra time in my day,” said Peirce. [Lincoln had drawn the last daily strip weeks (months?) ago.]

Peirce said he was beginning to hit a wall developing fresh ideas for Big Nate’s adventures, which began in 1991.

Even as he discontinues the dailies, Peirce said that he looks forward to brainstorming new ideas for “Big Nate” every week.

The above linked Portland Press Herald story notes that Big Nate “runs in 400 newspapers.” The syndicate industry counts weekday and Sunday strips as separate entities as far as circulation numbers are concerned so about 200 spaces will need filling on the daily comics pages. Surprisingly I have seen no stories about what will replace Big Nate on those 200 or so pages. Even The Press Herald doesn’t mention what is coming. Maybe they are waiting to inform readers on Sunday. Or maybe just surprise Big Nate fans with a new strip on Monday.

Lincoln Peirce has gallantly refused to allow Big Nate reruns be distributed to newspapers, opening up those slots to other cartoonists. But the GoComics newsletter informs that Big Nate reruns will be available there. Either as part of the regular Big Nate run or as a newly created Big Nate Classics page:

The final new daily “Big Nate” will run this Friday, June 13. But don’t worry—weekday reruns are coming soon to give you your daily dose of Nate, Francis, Teddy, and the gang. And yes, new strips still drop every Sunday!

The number of Sunday only comic strips are increasing enough to almost fill their own Sunday supplement: Big Nate, Foxtrot, Biographic, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, and Prince Valiant are the ones that do not offer daily reruns to newspapers. Then there are Doonesbury, Between Friends, Popeye, Zits at the moment, and soon Baby Blues for a while.