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Famous Like Me > Writer > D > Peter David

Profile of Peter David on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Peter David  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 23rd September 1956
   
Place of Birth: Ft. Meade, Maryland, USA
   
Profession: Writer
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956) is an American writer, best known for his work in comic books and Star Trek novels. David often jokingly describes his occupation as "writer of stuff".

David is Jewish (a fact he frequently references in his monthly column, "But I Digress" for the comics industry periodical Comics Buyer's Guide) and lives in New York.

In the early 1980s he worked for Marvel Comics in their sales department under Carol Kalish. While there, he submitted a storyline for The Spectacular Spider-Man entitled "The Death of Jean DeWolff". The story was published, illustrated by Rich Buckler, and ran as issues #107-110. The story focused on the death of a supporting character in the Spider-Man continuity and the characters' reactions to it. The story was acclaimed, both critically and popularly, and David left his sales job and became the regular writer of The Spectacular Spider-Man for a time. David credits Kalish for influencing him personally and for pushing him into a writing career, writing a moving eulogy to his former boss in "But I Digress" after her sudden death from heart failure in 1991.

Soon after his run on The Spectacular Spider-Man, he began a lengthy run writing The Incredible Hulk, reviving interest in the flagging title and receiving a great deal of critical praise for his efforts. Many fans consider David's work on The Hulk to be the definitive interpretation of the character; David's reoccurring themes of Bruce Banner having to deal with psychological abuse by his tyrannical father (a theme first introduced by writer Bill Mantlo), his periodic changes between the 'Green' hulk (being more rageful) and the 'Gray' hulk (more cerebral) and of being a journeyman hero (trying to find a new home after leaving The Avengers) gave The Hulk much more emotional depth than had been seen before. (The notion of parental abuse was again seen in screenwriter Michael France's script of Ang Lee's theatrical adaptation of the character, Hulk).

However, on one more than one occasion, editorial problems or corporate pressure to modify or re-script his plotlines have forced David to leave books, particularly his decision to leave Marvel's X-Factor, due to constantly having to constrain his plots to accommodate crossover events planned around it and other "mutant" titles (such as X-Men, X-Force, etc). When David abruptly left The Incredible Hulk due to editorial pressures, some of the plot points of the character that David established were reversed by later creative teams. While such creative-editorial conflict is a commonplace occurance in comics, David's departures tend to get more notoriety and press within the comic community, in that the fact that his books often become fan favorites.

Also as such, David's personality and high viability in the comics profession has led to creative or personal differences with some of his comic peers, in particular a long-lived feud with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane through much of the 90s as the comic book imprint McFarlane's co-founded, Image Comics, came into prominence.

David is noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its deft mingling of real world issues with humor and references to popular culture.

Comic books

At Marvel Comics, in addition to his Hulk and Spider-Man work, he created the character Spider-Man 2099, and has also had stints writing on Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell), Wolverine, Merc, and Justice.

At DC Comics he wrote a miniseries The Atlantis Chronicles about the history of Aquaman's home of Atlantis. David has sometimes referred to this series as one of his favorite pieces of writing. He also wrote a lengthy stint on the monthly Aquaman comic itself, as well as long runs for Supergirl, Young Justice, and the Star Trek comic book. The Star Trek run (in the mid-90's when DC Comics held the rights to the title) was also a fan favorite, again highlighting his use of humor, and for scripting stories with strong ties to Trek's existing continunity. His run on Aquaman also gained notoriety in that during the run of the book, Aquaman lost a hand, which was then replaced with an intimidating hooked spear, a feature of the character that endured for several years.

Other comics series he has worked on include Soulsearchers and Company and the Epic Comics title Sachs and Violens, with art by George Pérez.

He is currently (as of 2005) writing the acclaimed comic Fallen Angel, which moved from DC Comics to IDW Publishing with issue 20, and another run on Incredible Hulk. He is also expected to start two new series for Marvel Comics in the fall of 2005: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and a re-launch of X-Factor.

Novels

David has published dozens of novels, many of which have made appearances on the New York Times bestseller list. He is best known for his Star Trek novels, including Q-in-Law, I,Q, Vendetta, Q-Squared, and Imzadi, one of the best-selling Star Trek novels of all time. He created Star Trek: New Frontier, a spin-off from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with John J. Ordover in 1997. He has also written several Babylon 5 novels.

He has also written original science fiction and fantasy works, including Knight Life, One Knight Only, Howling Mad, Sir Apropos of Nothing, The Woad to Wuin and Tong Lashing.

Other published work

His opinion column "But I Digress" is a staple of the Comic Buyer's Guide comics industry periodical.

David wrote a biography of James Doohan.

Before David became a professional writer, he was a prolific author of fan fiction, including "The Tardis at Pooh Corner".

Other media

David has written for several television series. He wrote two scripts for Babylon 5, and one for its sequel Crusade. With actor/writer Bill Mumy, he is co-creator of the television series Space Cases, which ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon. He has also written and co-produced several films for Full Moon Entertainment and has made cameo appearances in some of the films as well.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Peter David