My 9-year-old son loves to read. His latest obsession is with the Big Nate books by
author/cartoonist Lincoln Peirce. My son will not leave the house without one of these books in hand. Peirce (pronounced “purse”) appeared as a speaker in the Black, White and Read All Over series yesterday at the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library Lecture
hall.
Peirce says he’s been doodling since the third grade. As a
child, he was inspired by the works of Charles Shultz. As a kid, Peirce constantly
read comic strips, comic books and regular books. He studied the comics and
copied them. With practice he got better. As an adult, he says his drawing is
still improving. Pierce shared some of his earliest sketches with the audience
from his elementary school years.
He told the crowd that to be a good cartoonist, you must
practice both your writing and your handwriting. You have to be able to tell a
good story to your readers. When he works on a book, the words always come
before the pictures.
Peirce began his career as a cartoonist over 20 years ago.
His first comic that was published was called “Neighborhood Comix.” His Big
Nate character was developed from this series. His syndicated comic strip appears in over 200 newspapers.
The fourth book in the series, “Big Nate Goes for Broke”
will be released in March of this year. Peirce has already done the cover art and title of
book five, “Big Nate Flips Out.”
As Peirce talked with the audience and took questions from
the kids, he doodled sketches on the Elmo. It was cool to see his
passion pour through while he sketched and to also watch the excitement on my son’s
face and the other kids around us as they listened to Peirce’s stories.
I want to thank Lincoln Peirce for visiting Pittsburgh
And for more information on the Big Nate books, please visit
Lincoln Peirce’s website at: http://www.bignatebooks.com/about-the-author
No comments:
Post a Comment