Big Nate - Other Characters

Other Characters

• Francis (Butthurst) Pope: Nate's number one friend, Francis is very intelligent but upsets his friends from time to time. Nate and Francis frequently make fun of each other, but in Big Nate: Strikes Again states that this is how they operate. Contrary to Nate's feelings for them, Francis is friendly with both Mrs. Godfrey and Artur. Francis participates in the band "Enslave the Mollusk" along with Nate, Teddy, and Artur. He dates Sheila.
• Teddy Ortiz : Nate's number "1A" friend, Teddy has been shown to be a comedic character willing to crack jokes and annoy Nate. Like Francis, Teddy likes Artur and is in "Enslave the Mollusk". Initially Peirce thought that Teddy would become one of Nate's rivals, but instead made him into one of Nate's closest friends. Peirce has never specified in the strip what Teddy stands for (if anything). Teddy's middle name is "√" (the square root sign.) He explains, "My parents are both math teachers." Teddy can be extremely gross, doing things like squirting milk out his nose.
• Marty Wright: Nate's middle-aged, divorced father. He plays golf, albeit very poorly, and will never allow Nate to have a dog, despite Nate's incessant requests. Formerly known simply as 'Dad', his name was revealed to be Marty at a family get-together. In the strips Marty appears to be a normal sized man with a pot belly, whereas in Nate's own drawings he is more circular and obese looking.
• Ellen Wright: Nate's fifteen-year-old sister. She is self-absorbed and constantly at odds with Nate about almost everything. Nate finds her very obnoxious, and the fact that his teachers wish he was more like her aggravates him. She could not care less about Nate. Is dating Gordie but – according to Nate who read her diary – 'she secretly lusts after a guy she met at the mall named Steve.'
• Mrs. Clara Godfrey: Nate's ultimate nemesis, his social studies teacher. Nate spends much of his time trying to avoid her outside of class and antagonizing her in class, making up several nicknames for her. He thinks she has onion breath.
• Mrs. "Hickey" Hickson: The school librarian. She is a middle-aged woman who does not tolerate insolence from anyone. She is mentioned in Big Nate: In a Class By Himself, and makes an official appearance in Big Nate Strikes Again.
• Jenny Jenkins: Nate's classmate since grade one. She is his biggest crush–however, she despises Nate (though Nate is absolutely oblivious). Jenny is dating Artur, but she moved to Seattle. She's a pretty blonde girl with sky blue eyes. It is almost certain that she has no feelings for Nate and barely considers him as a friend. She tends to go berserk when something embarrassing is done to her (ex. Nate tripped and spilled egg salad on her). In the older strips it was revealed that she is a cheerleader. On February 2 2013, it shows that Jenny has hugged Nate because she knows that Nate will miss her.
• Artur Pashkov: A very intelligent and well liked exchange student from the Republic of Belarus. He is in Nate's class, and is Jenny Jenkins' boyfriend. Jenny's liking for Artur, and Artur's ability to beat Nate at chess, gives him a one-sided rivalry with Nate. Artur was the Boys' Age-Group Chess Champion of Belarus before moving to the United States. He was quite modest about this, stating that Belarus is, "Very small country. Barely eleven million." He appeared in some movies from Belarus. Artur speaks somewhat broken English as a second language. He is very innocent, gentle, kind, and (most of the time) unassuming. He regards Nate as his friend, and is generally unaware of Nate's dislike of him. He went with his father, a college professor, to Turkey, during which time Nate tried to start going out with Jenny. Artur is a sweet kind nice boy who is trying to please Nate, even letting Nate beat him at chess so that Nate could be happy. While Nate somewhat views Artur as a friend, he is quite jealous of Artur's talent and better luck. He sums it like: "I like Artur okay. But it's sort of annoying how nothing ever goes wrong for him." When he wore figure skates he was lightly teased by Nate until a cute girl came up and asked him to practice figure-skating with her. He is very well-liked and popular by the girls though according to the comics the most popular guy in school states that Artur is a loser revealing that Artur is not popular with the boys. His first appearance on the comic strip was on May 7, 2001.
• Mr. Ken Rosa: Nate's art teacher. Mr. Rosa is a soft spoken, optimistic, and mild-mannered man. As a result, Nate enjoys a lot of freedom in art class. He also enjoys sketching pictures of his teachers. Mr. Rosa has a master's degree, but he has to work at an ice cream shop called "Sweet Licks", scooping ice cream all summer long to make ends meet. His supervisor at the ice cream store is at least half his age.
• "School Picture Guy": Not only showing up every year as the school picture photographer, this character often shows up in unexpected places doing odd jobs such as a birthday clown or a school board meeting reporter. "School Picture Guy" often has some amusing nuggets of wisdom about the job he is doing, or a nugget of wisdom for whatever is on Nate's mind at the moment. He is always shown wearing a Band-Aid.
• Kelly: Nate's ex-girlfriend whom he met at soccer camp. She goes to Jefferson Middle School, and is the goalie on the girls' soccer team. Not seen since Nate broke up with her to try to start going with Jenny after Jenny broke up with her boyfriend. (Kelly was angry, with good reason, because Nate broke up with her using a note written on the back of a detention slip.) They dated from 7-10-01 to 4-11-02.
• Angie: Nate's first girlfriend. They dated from 7-14-97 to 2-12-98. She appeared twice more: once at the school dance, where Nate consoles her, and again when she runs against Nate for school president.
• Chester Budrick: A person who appears to be too old for his grade. Their baseball pitcher. Usually shown as an arm or not at all, but he appears briefly when Nate talks about losing in dodgeball in Big Nate Strikes Again. In Big Nate on a Roll, only his head does not show during detention time in the beginning of the book.
• Gina Hemphill-Toms: One of Nate's schoolmates and rivals. Gina is P.S. 38's resident know-it-all and over-achiever, and often finds herself in academic competition with fellow overachiever Francis. Nate and Gina tend to despise each other with a passion, viewing each other's personalities and work ethics as terrible, however Francis and Teddy have mentioned that Nate and Gina have a love-hate relationship. In recent strips, it has been hinted that Nate actually likes Gina deep down, but denies his feelings for her because he believes that he hates everything about her. Ironically, Nate's behavior toward Gina of despising her but hiding feelings for her is identical to what he thinks is his relationship with Jenny, in that he believes Jenny acts like she hates him but really likes him deep down. Of course, Nate is again oblivious to the similarity. Nate listed Gina as number 1 on his list of worst potential project partners. In Big Nate Strikes Again, she ruins the fleeceball team by being terrible at fleeceball and by using the name Kuddle Kittens, angering Nate. She first appeared in 1999, but looked different than she does in today's strips. She was once called Gina Brigham on 3-17-99 but was not actually seen. Lincoln Peirce denies that it is actually Gina.
• Cap'n Salty: A fisherman who enjoys talking like a pirate. His favorite hobby is catching lobsters under the sea. Cap’n Salty is a character Lincoln Pierce created exclusively for the children's website Poptropica.com, where “Big Nate Island” is one of the features. However, the only mention of Cap'n Salty in the strip itself is the restaurant "Cap'n Salty's" by the beach.
• Chief Meteorologist Wink Summers: Never seen or heard from, but Nate constantly calls him and complains whenever any part of the weather is not to his liking or if Wink's forecast is wrong. He was replaced by Chip Cavendish and transferred to weekend meteorologist in August, 2011. His real name is Dick Schipp. Has a blog called chipcavendishruinedmycareer.blogspot.com
• Spitsy: The neighborhood dog owned by Mr. Eustis, the man next door to the Wrights. Nate likes to go to the woods and hang out with Spitsy. He is "the ultimate dog nerd", for he is afraid of mailmen and he had to go to the doctor when he swallowed a tennis ball to get his stomach pumped. He has a crush on Francis' cat Pickles, went to a cat tea party, and even knitted a sweater like his own bone one for a cat. He likes figure skating as much as Ellen, and gets his tongue stuck on metal poles in the winter frequently.
• Ted Wright: Nate's childish uncle, who still lives with Nate's grandparents. He is a big fan of Battlestar: Galactica. He first appeared when Nate was painting his grandparents' house, where, instead of helping Nate, he spent his time reenacting Battlestar: Galactica. He is known for making rather lame excuses, such as cheating in Monopoly by saying the government gave him a bailout, or saying he does not help Nate because it would damage his fingers and prevent his oboe playing, when in reality he has long stopped playing the oboe.
• Randy Betancourt: One of Nate's other rivals. In Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Randy got Nate into detention in the chess club bake sale. He threw a lemon square that hit Mrs. Godfrey and blamed Nate for it. Then Nate threw his dad's yogurt coconut pie at Randy. He was the main antagonist in Big Nate Strikes Again, as he creates a fleeceball team called the Raptors. The day before the game, Randy ran into a table Nate was carrying and got a bloody nose. In the game, Randy stomps on Nate's foot for payback time after he grounds out. His first appearance in the comic strip was on 25 April 2010.
• Gordie: Ellen's ex-boyfriend. He shares Nate's love for the comic book Femme Fatality, and runs nearby comic shop Klassic Komix. In Big Nate on a Roll, it is revealed he has a boss named Wayne that looks like a caveman.
• Chad: He's one of Nate's good friends. Chad's appearance is a chubby kid with red hair and freckles. He is obsessed with eating and food. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself; Nate mistake him for Todd. A smiley face is often seen on his shirt. He is willing to help Nate with all his schemes
• Sheila Stapleton : Is a friend of Nate, Francis, Teddy, and Jenny. Hasn't been seen for a while. She goes out with Francis. In the older comics it states that she is the captain of the cheerleaders and Jenny's best friend.
• Coach John: He is a substitute of Coach Calhoun. He is a soccer coach of Nate. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself, Nate wears his pants . In a comic it is revealed that Coach John wears a toupee.
• Mr. Galvin: The science teacher. He has a crush on Greta Van Susteren.
• Mr. Staples: The math teacher. He likes to tell "corny knock-knock jokes".
• Mrs. Clarke: The English teacher. She is the only African-American besides Shelia in the strip.
• Mrs. Lumley: A cafeteria worker.
• Mrs. Corzini: A "lunch aide."
• Principal Nichols: The Principal of P.S. 38. Nate and the other students are very friendly towards him, but not really treating him as an authority figure; he is bewildered by the students and on the rare occasion he goes out of his office but he soon retreats. He is sometimes snappy towards Nate and Nate is taken aback by this, but of all the teachers (besides Mr. Rosa ) he is probably the one Nate gets along best with; he sometimes helps the cartooning club and treats Nate's antics with good humor most of the time.
• Mrs. Shipulski: Principal Nichols' secretary. She prides herself on her low BMI. Nate flatters her by calling her a "cougar," among other things.
• Mrs. Czerwicki: She is a school volunteer who sits in detention to supervise the students who must be there. She reads romance novels while sitting in detention. in a strip it reveals she wears a wig and she said that she was once an actress.
• Marcus: Marcus is "the popular kid" in school, though it is difficult to understand why. He is very narcissistic, and is also a bully. Two members of his gang are Andy and Dennis.
• Ronnie Dwyer: Jenny's boyfriend from 3-31-00 to 3-25-02.
• Greg Proxmire: Jenny's boyfriend from 4-13-02 to 11-29-04.
• Dee Dee Holloway: A friend of Nate mentioned in Big Nate Strikes Again and first appeared in Big Nate Goes For Broke. She is a big drama queen, as she is a member of the drama club. She may use big words or grown-up expressions, such as "Everyone has an Achilles' heel!" Nate did not like her much at first, but she has been gradually winning him over. She is a very good artist and cartoonist.
• Paige: Friend of Nate in Big Nate Goes For Broke. In an example of Dee Dee's drama, Dee Dee sticks her arm in her french fries. She is also a candidate for The Doodlers. It is mentioned she has brothers. She is Teddy's girlfriend.