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Comic Strips Newspaper industry

The Big Nate Replacement Thread

Published: June 17, 2026 1 minute 8 comments

I remain astonished at the lack of notices from newspapers about the weekday Big Nate ending and what is replacing the daily comic strip in the 200 (give or take) papers.

We ran a couple notices from newspapers about what would be filling the space.

This past weekend it was noted that Wallace the Brave had replaced the discontinued Big Nate daily comic strip in The Washington Post. Mike Rhode at Comics DC provides the photographic evidence.

It was also mentioned that The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald has Red and Rover as a replacement. Here’s the notice to their readers.

The Mon Valley (PA) Independent also told readers of the change, but I can’t break the paywall.

And Mike T. reported that “the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram chose BALDO to replace it.”

Now I didn’t expect the ballyhoo that happened when Garry Trudeau stopped creating daily strips, but the dearth of stories about Big Nate no longer being a daily read is stunning.

Grant noted some changes via NewsBank and was kind enough to send us a worksheet he drew up.

The chart shows as Grant said that there is no real front runner in replacing Big Nate.

Rosebuds – possibly 4 (Georges Media Group*, Marietta Daily Journal e-edition)

Baldo – 3 (Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Idaho Falls Post-Register, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram)

Adam@Home – 2 (Denver Post**, Marin Independent Journal**)

Lio – 2 (Chico Enterprise-Record, Orville Mercury-Register)

Wallace the Brave – 2 (Charleston Post and Carrier, Washington Post)

Breaking Cat News – 1 (Courier of Montgomery County)

Over the Hedge – 1 (Seattle Times digital)

Red and Rover – 1 (Arlington Heights Daily Herald)

Ziggy – 1 (San Francisco Union Tribune)

no replacement – 1 (Springfield Republican)

reruns – 5 > see Grant’s comment (Tribune Publishing**)

promo for the Sunday Big Nate – ?? (Advance Publishing***)

Advance Publications newspaper promo for the Sunday Big Nate

addenda

* Georges Media Group consists of The Times-Picayune, The Advocate, and The Arcadian Advocate in print and the digital Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate.

** Tribune Publishing consists of some five dozen newspapers. The papers are not subject to a unified corporate comics page. The Denver and Marin County papers have chosen Adam@Home. At least one is running reruns, a temporary solution I would think as Lincoln Peirce is not allow reruns to be syndicated.

*** Advance Publications newspapers do run a unified comics page through their group of two dozen newspapers so when the corporate decision comes down the pike it will bea big pick up for the the chosen comic strip. Big Nate ran only daily in the Advance newspapers and not on Sunday, so that switch is a draw for Peirce. That means a Sunday strip will be dropped to make room for Big Nate – currently they print the rerun strips of Peanuts, Get Fuzzy, For Better or For Worse, Mutts, and the off-and-on Baby Blues.

The last time we checked Canada’s PostMedia group was running Big Nate on their consolidated comics page. As was the two dozen Wick Communications papers.

Let us know what your paper is running in place of Big Nate.

Rex Babin
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Comments 8

  1. The Tribune owned papers I viewed were Aurora Beacon News, Daily Southtown, Lake County News-Sun, Naperville Sun, Merrillville Post-Tribune,

    1. So I guess the 5 Illinois/NW Indiana newspapers owned by Tribune Publishing will run daily Big Nate reruns until they agree on a replacement? Why not have all 5 of the papers run a Tribune owned strip in the daily Big Nate place? Maybe Dick Tracy (it runs in the Chicago Tribune) or still going Gasoline Alley?

      i know the USA Today owned newspapers that run a unified comics page don’t carry Big Nate, and the Lee Enterprises newspapers also have unified comics all from King Features and not Andrews-McMeel.

  2. Minnesota Star Tribune announced on Saturday that Wallace the Brave would be replacing Big Nate.

  3. The Kokomo Tribune and Logansport Pharos-Tribune also replaced Big Nate with Rosebuds.

  4. Here’s the notice that ran in the Mon Valley Independent (Monessen, Pa.) on Monday, June 15:

    Comics page change

    Lincoln Peirce, the creator of the powerhouse comic “Big Nate,” concluded the daily version of the comic strip on Saturday. The Sunday version will continue with a new comic every week.

    The Mon Valley Independent will now be featuring the comic strip “Brevity,” Dan Thompson’s witty comic strip delivering short, sharp observations about everyday life. From office annoyances to daily absurdities, it is inspired by “The Far Side.”

  5. The Dallas Morning News (can’t italicize the name of the newspaper) replaced “Big Nate” with “The Grizzwells.”

    One of the biggest concerns about the comics sections of the current newspapers has been the dearth of new talent. Well, how about finding better strips than the following, with reasons listed:

    “Adam@Home” is just plain boring and the art is dull.
    “Breaking Cat News” has nice watercolors but the storylines????? Well, I like animals, too, but …
    “Hart of the City” is and has been just awful since the Steenz took it over.
    “Nancy”???? Ernie Bushmiller is rolling over in his grave.

  6. Hope there’s an updated thread for this.

  7. The Washington Post online is still running “Big Nate”, and the signature still says “Peirce”, but while the story line seems the same and personalities in line with what they were before, the artwork is crude black & white line drawings and very offputting. Too bad that Peirce couldn’t have mentored another artist along the manner of “Popeye”, which is if anything even better than the classic version.

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