Peter David
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
David's Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
One of the most prolific and influential comic book writers of the modern era, David earned several awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award, and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
Early life
Peter David was born September 23, 1956, in Fort Meade, Maryland, to Gunter and Dalia David, an Israeli Jewish mother who had worked with DNA mappers James Watson and Francis Crick, and to whom David credited his sense of humor. Peter David's paternal grandparents, Martin and Hela David, and his father, Gunter, emigrated to the United States in the 1930s after antisemitism in Nazi Germany progressed to the point that Martin's Berlin shoe store became the target of vandalism. He had two siblings, a brother Wally, seven years his junior, who works as an IT Systems Administrator in the financial sector, and a younger sister named Beth.David first became interested in comics when he was about five years old, reading copies of Harvey Comics' Casper and Wendy in a barbershop. He became interested in superheroes through the Adventures of Superman TV series. Although David's parents approved of his reading Harvey Comics and comics featuring Disney characters, they did not approve of superhero books, especially those published by Marvel Comics, feeling that characters that looked like monsters, such as the Thing or the Hulk, or who wore bug-eyed costumes, like Spider-Man, did not appear heroic. As a result, David read those comics in secret, beginning with his first Marvel book, Fantastic Four Annual #3, which saw the wedding of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. His parents eventually allowed him to start reading superhero titles, his favorite of which was Superman. He cited John Buscema as his favorite pre-1970s artist. David attended his first comic book convention around the time that Jack Kirby's New Gods premiered, after asking his father to take him to one of Phil Seuling's shows in New York, where David obtained Kirby's autograph, his first encounter with a comics professional.
David's earliest interest in writing came through the journalism work of his father, Gunter, who sometimes reviewed movies and took young Peter along. While Gunter wrote his reviews back at the newspaper's office, David wrote his own, portions of which sometimes found their way into Gunter's published reviews. David began to entertain the notion of becoming a professional writer at age twelve, buying a copy of The Guide to the Writer's Market, and subscribing to similar-themed magazines, in the hopes of becoming a reporter.
David lived in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in a small house at 11 Albert Terrace, and attended Demarest Elementary School. His family later moved to Verona, New Jersey, where he spent his adolescence. By the time he entered his teens, he had lost interest in comic books, feeling he had outgrown them. David's best friend in junior high and first year in high school, Keith, was gay, and David described how both of them were targets of ostracism and harassment from homophobes. Although his family eventually moved to Pennsylvania, his experiences in Verona soured him on that town and shaped his liberal sociopolitical positions regarding LGBT issues. He later made Verona the home location of villain Morgan le Fay in his novel Knight Life, and often discussed his progressive views on LGBT issues in his column and on his blog.
David's interest in comics was rekindled when he saw a copy of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali while passing a newsstand, and later, X-Men #95, and discovered in that latter book the "All-New, All-Different" team that had first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1. These two books were the first comics he had purchased in years.
A seminal moment in the course of his aspirations occurred when he met writer Stephen King at a book signing, and told him that he was an aspiring writer. King signed David's copy of Danse Macabre with the inscription, "Good luck with your writing career", which David in turn inscribed onto books presented to him by fans who told him the same thing. Other authors that David cited as influences included Harlan Ellison, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert B. Parker, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Robert Crais, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Specific books he mentioned as favorites included To Kill a Mockingbird, Tarzan of the Apes, The Princess Bride, The Essential Ellison, A Confederacy of Dunces, Adams Versus Jefferson, and Don Quixote. David singled out Ellison in particular as a writer whom he tried to emulate.
David attended New York University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism.
Career
Early work
David's first professional assignment was covering the World Science Fiction Convention held in Washington in 1974 for the Philadelphia Bulletin.David eventually gravitated towards fiction after his attempts at journalism did not meet with success. His first published fiction appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1980. He sold an op-ed piece to The New York Times, but overall his submissions that met with rejection far outnumbered those accepted.
Comics career
1980s
David eventually gave up on a career in writing and came to work in book publishing. His first publishing job was for the E.P. Dutton imprint Elsevier/Nelson, where he worked mainly as an assistant to the editor-in-chief. He later worked in sales and distribution for Playboy Paperbacks. He subsequently worked for five years in Marvel Comics' Sales Department, first as Assistant Direct Sales Manager under Carol Kalish, who hired him, and then succeeding Kalish as Sales Manager. During this time he made some cursory attempts to sell stories, including submission of some Moon Knight plots to Dennis O'Neil, but his efforts were unfruitful.Three years into David's tenure as Direct Sales Manager, Jim Owsley became editor of the Spider-Man titles. Although crossing over from sales into editorial was considered a conflict of interest in the Marvel offices, Owsley, whom David describes as a "maverick", was impressed with how David had not previously hesitated to work with him when Owsley was an assistant editor under Larry Hama. When Owsley became an editor, he purchased a Spider-Man story from David, which appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man #103. Owsley subsequently purchased David's "The Death of Jean DeWolff", a violent murder mystery darker in tone than the usually lighter Spider-Man stories that ran in issues #107–110 of that title. Responding to charges of conflict of interest, David made a point of not discussing editorial matters with anyone during his 9-to-5 hours as Direct Sales Manager, and decided not to exploit his position as Sales Manager by promoting the title. Although David attributed the story's poor sales to this decision, he asserted that such crossing over from Sales to Editorial was now common. In the Marvel offices, a rumor circulated that it was actually Owsley who was writing the stories attributed to David. Nonetheless, David said he was fired from Spectacular Spider-Man by Owsley due to editorial pressure by Marvel's editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and he commented that the resentment stirred by Owsley's purchase of his stories may have permanently damaged Owsley's career. Months later, Bob Harras offered David The Incredible Hulk, as it was a struggling title that no one else wanted to write, which gave David free rein with the character.
During his 12-year run on Hulk, David explored the recurring themes of the Hulk's multiple personality disorder, his periodic changes between the raging, less intelligent Green Hulk and the more streetwise, cerebral Grey Hulk, and of being a journeyman hero, which were inspired by The Incredible Hulk #312, in which writer Bill Mantlo had first established that Bruce Banner had suffered childhood abuse at the hands of his father Brian Banner. These aspects of the character were later used in the 2003 feature film adaptation by screenwriter Michael France and director Ang Lee. Comic Book Resources credits David with making the formerly poor-selling book "a must-read mega-hit". David collaborated with a number of artists who became fan-favorites on the series, including Todd McFarlane, Dale Keown, and Gary Frank. Among the new characters he created during his run on the series were the Riot Squad and the Pantheon. David wrote the first appearance of the Thunderbolts, a team created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, in The Incredible Hulk #449.
It was after he had been freelancing for a year, and into his run on Hulk, that David felt that his writing career had cemented. After putting out feelers at DC Comics, and being offered the job of writing a four-issue miniseries of The Phantom by editor Mike Gold, David quit his sales position to write full-time. David had a brief tenure writing Green Lantern when the character was exclusive to the short-lived anthology series Action Comics Weekly in 1988.
David took over Dreadstar during its First Comics run, with issue #41 after Jim Starlin left the title, and remained on it until issue #64, the final issue of that run. David's other Marvel Comics work in the late 1980s and 1990s includes runs on Wolverine, the New Universe series Mark Hazzard: Merc and Justice, a run on the original X-Factor, and the futuristic series Spider-Man 2099, about a man in the year 2099 who takes up the mantle of Spider-Man, the title character of which David co-created. David left X-Factor after 19 issues, and he wrote the first 44 issues of Spider-Man 2099 before quitting that book to protest the firing of editor Joey Cavalieri. The book was cancelled two issues later, along with the entire 2099 line.