How's that novel you been workin' on?

Nate Notes

Nate's facial hair has been a factor in the comic since the early days, with a lot of people comparing him to Dante from Clerks. While I don't deny that Clerks was an early influence, I can assure you that Kevin Smith didn't invent the idea of a guy with a goatee who works at a store. (It probably didn't help things that early TGs were originally in black and white!)

When it came time to do the reboot, I knew I was going to change up his style a bit. But I also thought it would be fun to reference Nate's original look, especially the really old comics from the first few years where he looked like a hamster.

By the time I decided to reboot the series, that facial hair style had faded in popularity, hence the 9/11 comment. Neat trims or bigass sculptured Gigachad beards are the way to go now. I don't think Nate's the type to rock either of those, but he's also not going to be great about shaving even when he's not at maximum depression.

He does seem like the type to use a shitty electric razor every few days though, so therefore he gets the scruff.