Nathan W. Pyle

Nathan W. Pyle (born 1982) is an American cartoonist and writer living in New York City. He is the creator of the popular Strange Planet webcomic series, which according to Pyle depicts "a strangely familiar planet full of blue things who are doing things that seem very traditional and familiar to us, but they describe them in some unusual ways" using very technical terminology, such as saying "I crave star damage" instead of "I want to get a sun tan." Launched in February 2019, it quickly gained a large following on Instagram.

His 2014 comic series and book NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, showcasing his sardonic observational humor, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

A native of Ohio, Pyle studied theology in college and taught high school theology for two years before moving to New York in 2008 to pursue creative work. He worked in television production and began posting t-shirt designs to Threadless. His work gained wide attention in 2013 when he posted a series of animated gifs to the website Reddit describing his observations of life in New York City. The animations went viral, attracting the attention of BuzzFeed, which offered him a job, and HarperCollins, which eventually published his comics in book form in NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette.

His webcomic Strange Planet, which features aliens discussing banal human experiences, premiered on Instagram in February 2019, gained 250,000 followers on a dedicated Instagram within 3 weeksand by May had over 2 million followers. A book version was released in November 2019 and entered the Publishers Weekly bestseller list for hardcover fiction.

In April 2019, a Twitter post by Pyle from 2017 resurfaced that implied he had endorsed the March For Life, causing fans to object to a presumed pro-life view; in a controversy that was described as an example of the Milkshake Duck phenomenon. Pyle released a statement shortly afterwards stating that he and his wife "have private beliefs as they pertain to our Christian faith. We believe separation of church and state is crucial to our nation flourishing." He also stated they supported the Democratic Party, while denouncing the Republican Party.