101 Facts About Peter David

Peter David has earned multiple 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.

Peter David has 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.

Peter David first became interested in comics when he was about five years old, reading copies of Harvey Comics' Casper and Wendy in a barbershop.

Peter David became interested in superheroes through the Adventures of Superman TV series.

Peter David cites John Buscema as his favorite pre-1970s artist.

Peter 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 Peter David obtained Kirby's autograph, his first encounter with a comics professional.

Peter 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.

Peter David lived in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in a small house at 11 Albert Terrace, and attended Demarest Elementary School.

Peter David later made Verona the home location of villain Morgan le Fay in his novel Knight Life, and has often discussed his progressive views on LGBT issues in his column and on his blog.

Peter David has singled out Ellison in particular as a writer whom he has tried to emulate.

Peter David attended New York University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism.

Peter David eventually gravitated towards fiction after his attempts at journalism did not meet with success.

Peter David's first published fiction appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1980.

Peter David sold an op-ed piece to The New York Times, but overall his submissions that met with rejection far outnumbered those accepted.

Peter David eventually gave up on a career in writing and came to work in book publishing.

Peter David later worked in sales and distribution for Playboy Paperbacks.

Peter David 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.

Months later, Bob Harras offered Peter David The Incredible Hulk, as it was a struggling title that no one else wanted to write, which gave Peter David free rein to do whatever he wanted with the character.

Comic Book Resources credits Peter David with making the formerly poor-selling book "a must-read mega-hit".

Peter David collaborated with a number of artists who became fan-favorites on the series, including Todd McFarlane, Dale Keown and Gary Frank.

Peter 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.

In 1990, Peter David wrote a seven-issue Aquaman miniseries, The Atlantis Chronicles, for DC Comics, about the history of Aquaman's home of Atlantis, which Peter David has referred to as among the written works of which he is most proud, and his first time writing in the full script format.

Peter David later wrote a 1994 Aquaman miniseries, Aquaman: Time and Tide, which led to a relaunched monthly Aquaman series, the first 46 issues of which he wrote from 1994 to 1998.

Peter David's run on Aquaman gained notoriety, for in the book's second issue, Aquaman lost a hand, which was then replaced with a harpoon, a feature of the character that endured for the duration of David's run on the book.

Peter David wrote the Star Trek comic book for DC from 1988 to 1991, when that company held the licensing rights to the property, though he has opined that novels are better suited to Star Trek, whose stories are not highly visual.

Peter David enjoyed considerable runs on Supergirl and Young Justice, the latter eventually being canceled so that DC could use that book's characters in a relaunched Teen Titans monthly.

In 2003, Peter David began writing another creator-owned comic, Fallen Angel, for DC Comics, which he created in order to make use of plans he had devised for Supergirl after the "Many Happy Returns" storyline, but which were derailed by that series' cancellation.

DC canceled Fallen Angel after 20 issues, but Peter David restarted the title at IDW Publishing at the end of 2005.

In 2005, Peter David briefly returned to The Incredible Hulk, though he left after only 11 issues because of his workload.

Peter David started a new series, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, beginning with a twelve-part crossover storyline called "The Other", which, along with J Michael Straczynski's run on The Amazing Spider-Man, and Reginald Hudlin's run on Marvel Knights Spider-Man, depicted the webslinger as he discovered he was dying, lost an eye during a traumatic fight with Morlun, underwent a metamorphosis and emerged with new abilities and insights into his powers.

Peter David wrote a MadroX miniseries that year, whose success led to a relaunch of a monthly X-Factor volume 3 written by him.

Peter David eventually won a 2011 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book for his work on the title.

On February 11,2006, Peter David announced at the WonderCon convention in California in that he had signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics.

The first new project undertaken by Peter David after entering into the contract, which he announced on April 5,2006, was writing the dialogue for The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, the comic book spin-off of Stephen King's The Dark Tower novels, which was to be illustrated by Jae Lee, as well as scripting the subsequent Dark Tower comics.

Peter David wrote the script for Avengers: Season One, an original graphic novel published to promote the DVD release of The Avengers.

On November 24,2011, Peter David was one of the balloon handlers who pulled the Spider-Man balloon during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In July 2014, Peter David returned to Spider-Man 2099, writing the second volume of Spider-Man 2099 with artist Will Sliney.

In 2014 Peter David wrote a six-part story-arc for The Phantom for publishing company Hermes Press, a story that Peter David, reportedly had wanted to write for many years.

In 2015, Simon and Schuster published Stan Lee's autobiographical graphic novel, Amazing Fantastic Incredible, which Peter David co-wrote, and which became a New York Times bestseller in its first week of release.

Peter David explained to Syfy Wire that when Marvel offered him the job, he was initially ambivalent, as Ben Reilly had never been his favorite incarnation of Spider-Man, and given Reilly's recent emergence as the villainous Jackal.

However, Peter David gave further consideration to the fact that a book whose main character had a skewed, villainous worldview was not something Marvel had historically done much of, and decided that the premise presented itself with opportunities that intrigued him enough to accept the job.

Peter David had been working at a publisher that went out of business, and a former coworker from that publisher became his agent, through whom he sold his first novel, Knight Life, to Ace Books.

Ace Books hired David to write the Photon and Psi-Man novels, though they published them under the "house name" David Peters, over David's objections.

Peter David updated Knight Life years later when Penguin Putnam brought it back into print in 2003, and made it a trilogy with the sequels One Knight Only and Fall of Knight, which were published in 2004 and 2007, respectively.

Peter David first began writing Star Trek novels at the request of Pocket Books editor Dave Stern, who was a fan of Peter David's Star Trek comic book work.

Peter David created the ongoing novel series, Star Trek: New Frontier, a spin-off from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with John J Ordover in 1997.

Peter David wrote an original Hulk novel, The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast, and an adaptation of an unused Alien Nation television script, "Body and Soul".

The second installment, The Highness of the Low, was scheduled to be published in September 2009, but Peter David has related on his blog that it has been delayed until the winter of 2012.

Peter David explained that the second book in his "Hidden Earth" trilogy would be published through Crazy Eight.

Peter David has stated that he tries to block out different days and different times to work on different projects.

Peter David previously wrote his comic book scripts using the Marvel Method, but due to his tendency to overplot, as during his collaboration with McFarlane on The Incredible Hulk, he switched to the full script method, which he continues to use as of 2003.

Peter David has stated that he prefers to plot his comics stories in six-month arcs.

Peter David has stated that when he works on a particular title, he always does so with a particular person or group of people in mind to which he dedicates it, explaining that he wrote Supergirl for his daughters, Young Justice for a son he might one day have and The Incredible Hulk for his first wife, Myra, who first urged him to accept the job of writing that book.

Peter David has further explained that the events of his own life are sometimes reflected in his work, as when, for example, following the breakup of his first marriage, the direction of The Incredible Hulk faltered, with the Hulk wandering the world aimlessly, hopelessly looking to be loved.

Peter David has stated that his favorite female character of his own creation is Lee, the protagonist of Fallen Angel, which he says is derived from the positive female fan reaction to that character.

Peter David has specifically mentioned interest in writing a Tarzan vs the Phantom story.

Peter David has written for several television series and video games.

Peter David wrote two scripts for Babylon 5, and the episode "Ruling from the Tomb" for its sequel series, Crusade.

Peter David himself appeared as Ben, the father of series regular Bova, in the second-season episode "Long Distance Calls".

Peter David has written and co-produced several films for Full Moon Entertainment and has made cameo appearances in some of the films as well.

Peter David wrote an unproduced script for the fifth season of Babylon 5 called "Gut Reactions", which he wrote with Bill Mumy.

Peter David wrote "In Charm's Way", an episode of Ben 10: Alien Force.

Peter David later wrote three episodes of the spinoff Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, the first of which, "Reflected Glory", premiered October 15,2010.

Peter David wrote the script for the Xbox 360 video game Shadow Complex, which debuted in August 2009.

Peter David wrote several episodes of the Young Justice animated TV series, which premiered in 2010, and is based on the comic book series he wrote from 1998 to 2003.

In 2011 Peter David wrote the video game Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Peter David describes Head Cases as a 75-minute movie divided into 5-minute webisodes.

On more than one occasion, editorial problems or corporate pressure to modify or re-script his plotlines have prompted Peter David to leave books, particularly his decision to terminate his first run on Marvel's X-Factor, due to constantly having to constrain his plots to accommodate crossover events with other books.

Peter David resigned from Spider-Man 2099 to protest the firing of editor Joey Cavalieri, and from Aquaman over other creative differences.

When Peter David abruptly left his first stint on The Incredible Hulk due to editorial pressures, some of the plot points of the character that Peter David established were retconned by later creative teams.

Peter David has criticized the low regard in which writers are held, the practice of bagged comics, so-called "poster covers" that showcase a character without indicating anything about the comic's content, the meaninglessness of killing off characters to be eventually revived, the poor commitment on the part of some to maintaining continuity in shared fictional universes, and the emphasis on gearing monthly comics series toward eventual collection into trade paperbacks.

Peter David has opined that failure on the part of consumers to purchase the monthly individual issues in favor of waiting for the trade collections hurts the sales of the monthly, and its chances of being collected at all.

Peter David has spoken out about fans who are abusive or threatening to creators, and against copyright infringement, particularly that which is committed through peer-to-peer file sharing and posting literary works in their entirety on the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder.

Peter David has criticized companies for not sufficiently compensating the creators of their long-standing and lucrative characters, such as Marvel Comics for its treatment of Blade creator Marv Wolfman and Archie Comics for its treatment of Josie and the Pussycats creator Dan DeCarlo.

Peter David has criticized publishers for various other business practices, including Marvel and Image Comics.

Peter David has defended said companies from criticism he feels is unfounded, as when he defended Marvel from a February 17,1992 Barron's magazine article.

Peter David has criticized deletionists on Wikipedia on more than one occasion.

Peter David was critical of the George W Bush administration in general, and the Iraq War in particular, as well as other Republicans and the religious right.

Peter David became a staunch critic of President Donald Trump and his administration, criticizing his policies on a weekly basis.

Peter David has spoken out in favor of Israel's right to defend itself from aggressors, and has opined that certain criticisms of Israel indicate bias and double standards.

Peter David is an advocate of freedom of speech, having criticized various publicized instances of censorship in general, such as the targeting of comic book retailers for prosecution for selling certain comic books, and the Comics Code Authority in particular.

Peter David is a promoter and activist for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which comes to the aid of such creators and retailers.

In October 2016, Peter David generated controversy for remarks he made during a panel discussion at the New York Comic Con to Vicente Rodriguez, a fan and the founder of Roma Pop, an organization that seeks to promote more positive representation of the Romani in comics.

Two days after his first blog post, and the day after the Comics Beat article, Peter David published a second blog post in which he apologized for his conduct, stating that after researching the matter, he concluded that the children he saw likely suffered from genetic conditions, and that he had no right to speak as he had to Rodriguez.

Peter David related that he had apologized to Rodriguez in person in subsequent encounters at the convention, and resolved to treat Romani characters with respect.

Peter David met his first wife, Myra Kasman, at a Star Trek convention.

Peter David had been a Conservative Jew, but as of October 2003, attends a Reform synagogue.

Peter David has named Perez as his favorite artistic collaborator, and has named Perez, Leonard Kirk and Dale Keown as the artists whose art has mostly closely matched the visuals he conceived when writing comic book scripts.

Peter David is an avid fan of bowling, and a bowler himself, as is his daughter Ariel.

Peter David is a fan of the New York Mets, and practices tai chi.

Peter David is a fan of musicals, in particular 1776, Man of La Mancha, Li'l Abner and Into the Woods, with a taste for Lerner and Loewe and Stephen Sondheim.

In June 2010, Peter David's wife announced on his website that he had successfully undergone surgery to relieve serious back pain.

Peter David later explained on his site that the pain, which he had been suffering in his hips and knees for three weeks, left him unable to function, and was eventually diagnosed as a herniated disc caused by bone fragments and fluid buildup.

Peter David underwent a three-hour discectomy, and was told his full strength would return in six months.

On December 29,2012, Peter David suffered a stroke while on vacation in Florida.

Peter David had made slow and steady progress on his right leg and arm, and was continuing his therapy.

Six months after the stroke, Peter David had completed his physical therapy, though he still suffered some pain in his shoulder, and intended to work on improving his reduced endurance.

Peter David revealed in January 2015 that he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a year prior.

In March 2017, Peter David announced on his blog that the IRS was demanding that he pay $88,000 USD in unpaid taxes, penalty and interest, which began to accumulate when his divorce from his first wife used up his savings.

Peter David announced that he would begin a Patreon account where he would publish new work, and which would be used to pay taxes, and asked his readers for their content requests.

On November 27,2022 another GoFundMe was launched by Graham Murphy who explained Peter David's health was in decline.