Old friends are comforting, and making new friends is always exciting. Last weekend I had both experiences.

The new friend is Lincoln Pierce, the artist and writer of the Big Nate best-selling chapter book series, who came to the Museum to teach a Master Class to 24 young artists, which was followed by a public talk and book signing. The auditorium was filled for the 1:00 pm talk and the youthful audience asked the author an array of questions from, “were you like Big Nate when you were a kid?” to “how long does it take to write a Big Nate book?”

It was a delight to walk through the Museum with Lincoln and share some of Sparky’s legacy with him. During his talk, Lincoln said that Charles Schulz was one of his early heroes. He credited Sparky with once saying that to be a cartoonist, you had to be a good writer but not a great writer, and a good artist but not a great artist. Upon hearing that quote from Sparky, Lincoln thought that he’d found his calling and his dream career.

Lincoln showed the class how he copied Peanuts characters as a child just learning to draw. He also said he was fascinated with how the Peanuts characters changed over the course of the strip–how Linus started as a baby and blossomed into a child.

And as for “old friends,” it turns out that Lincoln’s agent is none other than a former executive at United Media and one of Sparky’s favorite colleagues. Sparky enjoyed talking “books” and “life” with David Hendin, who is also an expert in ancient Jewish coins. David said that he was surprised and pleased to see two of his books, The Life Givers and Death as a Fact of Life, in the Museum re-creation of Sparky’s studio.

Lincoln and David at the book signing

What could gladden the heart of an author more than this picture?

I had a wonderful time talking “history” with David, and I think Lincoln enjoyed hearing it, too. Lincoln had been doing his comic strip with United Media for over 20 years, so he knew a lot of the people and situations we were reminiscing about.

Lincoln’s talk was a “gift” to the Museum before starting on a 10 day book tour in his colorful Big Nate bus. You can read his comments about his visit and see a photo of his bus on his blog.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   — Jean Schulz