Age, Biography, and Wiki
Peter David was born on September 23, 1956, in Fort Meade, Maryland. He passed away on May 24, 2025, at the age of 68. David was prominent in the comic book industry, known for his work on titles like The Incredible Hulk, Aquaman, and Spider-Man 2099. His writing career was marked by his versatility and ability to craft compelling stories across multiple platforms.
| Occupation | Activists |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 23 September 1956 |
| Age | 68 Years |
| Birth Place | Fort Meade, Maryland, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Virgo |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 24 May, 2025 |
| Died Place | N/A |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is limited public information available about Peter David's height and weight. However, his physical appearance was not as prominently documented as his literary achievements.
On December 29, 2012, David suffered a ischemic stroke while on vacation in Florida. The stroke occurred in the pons section of David's brain, from which he lost most of the use of his right arm and his right leg, and suffered from blurred vision in his right eye. While a total recovery was indicated to be unlikely, he remained in good spirits, and underwent physical therapy in order to return to his prior routine. Two and a half months later, his condition had improved. His vision problems were gone, and he was able to navigate around his house without a wheelchair, and resume bowling and practicing tai chi. He had made slow and steady progress on his right leg and arm, and was continuing his therapy. Six months after the stroke, David had completed his physical therapy, though he still suffered some pain in his shoulder, and intended to work on improving his reduced endurance. David revealed in January 2015 that he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a year prior.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Peter David was married to Kathleen O'Shea David from May 23, 2001, until his death in 2025. They had one child together, Caroline Helen David.
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 (November 1965), 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 (if it was age-appropriate). 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.
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 (October 1985), in which writer Bill Mantlo (and possibly, according to David, Barry Windsor-Smith) 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 (January 1997).
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 continued to use as of 2003. He stated that he preferred to plot his comics stories in six-month arcs. He stated that when he worked on a particular title, he always did so with a particular person or group of people in mind to which he dedicated it, explaining that he had written Supergirl for his daughters, Young Justice for a son he might one day have had and The Incredible Hulk for his first wife, Myra, who first urged him to accept the job of writing that book. David further explained that the events of his own life were 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.
David wrote for several television series and video games. He wrote two scripts for Babylon 5 (the second-season episodes "Soul Mates" and "There All the Honor Lies"), and the episode "Ruling from the Tomb" for its sequel series, Crusade. With actor/writer Bill Mumy, he was co-creator of the television series Space Cases, which ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon, and which proved to be his most lucrative work. David himself appeared as Ben, the father of series regular Bova, in the second-season episode "Long Distance Calls". David's oldest daughter, Shana, later appeared as Pezu, the emotionally disturbed sentient computer in the series finale "A Friend in Need".
At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Stan Lee announced his new YouTube channel, Stan Lee's World of Heroes, which airs several programs created by Lee and other creators. One of them, Head Cases, is a superhero sitcom created by David and his wife Kathleen and produced by David M. Uslan. The series centers on Thunderhead, a would-be hero whose inability to utilize his ability to produce loud thunderblasts without injury to himself leads him to become a source of comedic derision in the superhero community. The series, which explores events that occur in between the battles typically seen in comic books, was based on a concept originated by Uslan, and partly inspired by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. David described Head Cases as a 75-minute film divided into 5-minute webisodes. The series featured guest appearances by other industry personalities, including Stan Lee, who appears as himself, functioning in a similar manner to Norm Peterson from Cheers.
In his "But I Digress" column, which began appearing in the Comics Buyer's Guide on July 27, 1990, and in his blog, in operation from April 2002, David was outspoken in many of his views pertaining to the comic book industry and numerous other subjects. He criticized the low regard in which writers are held, the practice of selling polybagged 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. David 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. A father of four daughters, David worked on a number of series that feature female leads, such as Supergirl, Fallen Angel and She-Hulk, and he lamented that the American comic book market was not very supportive of such books. David spoke out about fans who were 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.
In October 2016, 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. Rodriguez had asked speakers at multiple panels at the convention about greater Romani representation in comics, in light of what he said were stereotypical depictions of that group. When he asked David about what the public could do about Marvel's editorial policies regarding this, David related an anecdote from a 1993 trip to Bucharest, where he was told by his guide that the crippled children he saw had been maimed by their parents to improve their success as beggars. David then angrily rebuffed further interjections by Rodriguez before moving onto the next question. David would later defend these beliefs on his blog, insisting that he had written Romani characters like Quicksilver in a positive manner, and was angered by the crippling of children. However Comics Beat, in reporting on the incident, stated that David's claim about the children is an urban myth commonly circulated in Romania, and that the malformed limbs seen in such children more likely resulted from lack of medical care, owing to the Romani distrust of the medical establishment that resulted from the forcible sterilization programs imposed upon them in many European nations until the 2000s. Two days after his first blog post, and the day after the Comics Beat article, 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. David also related that he had apologized to Rodriguez in person in subsequent encounters at the convention, and resolved to treat Romani characters with respect, as he believed he always had.
David met his first wife, Myra Kasman, at a Star Trek convention. They married in June 1977, with his childhood friend Keith serving as best man. Together they had three daughters, Shana, Guinevere and Ariel. They separated in late 1996 and were divorced by 1998. David began dating Kathleen O'Shea, a bookseller, puppeteer and writer/editor in 1998. After dating for three years, David proposed to O'Shea at the Adventurers Club in Disney World on September 3, 2000. They married on May 26, 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia. David and his family lived in Suffolk County, New York, on the south shore of Long Island, where his favorite local comics shop was Fourth World Comics in Smithtown, New York. David's father, Gunter, died of cancer on April 20, 2015. David's mother, Dalia, died May 27, 2017.
In June 2010, David's wife announced on his website that he had successfully undergone surgery to relieve serious back pain. He 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. He underwent a three-hour discectomy and was told his full strength would return in six months.
In March 2017, David announced on his blog that the Internal Revenue Service was demanding that he pay US$88,000 in unpaid taxes, penalty and interest, which began to accumulate when his divorce from his first wife used up his savings. He started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money from friends and fans, which raised $68,000 by April 12. 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. By May 11, having sold some original comics artwork acquired two decades earlier, the Davids' debts were paid off.
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| Husband | Myra Kasman (m. 1977-1998) Kathleen O'Shea (m. 2001) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Peter David's estimated net worth varied, with some sources suggesting it was over $1 million, while others estimated it at approximately $10 million. His earnings primarily came from his extensive work in the comic book industry, which included numerous successful titles and series.
David's 2010 novel work includes Year of the Black Rainbow, a novel cowritten with musician Claudio Sanchez of the band Coheed and Cambria, that was released with the band's album of the same name, and a Fable original novel The Balverine Order, set between the events of Fable II and Fable III. In April 2011, David announced that, in addition to another Fable novel, he and a number of other writers, including Glenn Hauman, Mike Friedman and Bob Greenberger, were assembling an electronic publishing endeavor called Crazy Eight Press to publish e-books directly to fans, the first of which would be David's Arthurian story, The Camelot Papers. David explained that the second book in his "Hidden Earth" trilogy would be published through Crazy Eight. In September 2013, David acknowledged that books published through Crazy Eight were not as lucrative for him as those for publishers that pay him advances, and announced that his then-impending novel, ARTFUL: Being the Heretofore Secret History of that Unique Individual, The Artful Dodger, Hunter of Vampyres (Amongst Other Things.), would be published by Amazon.com.
* David began writing his weekly opinion column, "But I Digress...", in Comics Buyer's Guide, since July 27, 1990, agreeing to do the column on the suggestion of an anonymous fan to Comics Buyer's Guide editors Don and Maggie Thompson, David credited the existence of the column to Harlan Ellison, whom he attempted to emulate with the column, and who wrote the introduction to the 1994 But I Digress collection. David donated his earnings from the column to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. David continued the column following CBG's switch to a monthly magazine format in 2004, until the magazine ceased publication in March 2013. A second collection, More Digressions, was published by Mad Norwegian Press in June 2009.
* In 2022, David curated an anthology titled The Fans are Buried Tales, which, in his own words, combined Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with an event at a Farpoint convention in which everyone was snowed in "and created the concept of a large, general SF convention in which the attendees are snowed in and wind up exchanging stories of their characters/genres in the hotel bar." When he discovered that organizers of the 2022 Farpoint convention would not be requiring attendees to show proof of vaccination or negative test results, he resorted to using a Kickstarter to pay those involved. Many of the stories were from fellow Crazy 8 authors, while others were submitted by other professional writers and even fans.
Career, Business, and Investments
Peter David's career was prolific in the comic book world, with notable works including The Incredible Hulk, Aquaman, Spider-Man 2099, and Star Trek: New Frontier. He began his career in journalism before transitioning into comic book writing. David also worked on television shows like Babylon 5 and was known for his sarcastic sense of humor in his writing.
In addition to his creative work, David faced financial challenges, including a significant tax debt in 2017, which he addressed through crowdfunding and selling original comic artwork. His health issues later in life led to additional financial burdens, prompting further fundraising efforts to cover medical expenses.
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.
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 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.
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 (issues #608–620) in 1988.
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 opined that novels are better suited to Star Trek, whose stories are not highly visual. He and Ron Marz cowrote the DC vs. Marvel intercompany crossover in 1996. David also had 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.
Other 1990s work includes the 1997 miniseries Heroes Reborn: The Return, for Marvel, and two creator-owned properties: Soulsearchers and Company, published by Claypool Comics, and the Epic Comics title Sachs and Violens, which he produced with co-creator/artist George Pérez.
On February 11, 2006, David announced at the WonderCon convention in California in that he had signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics. Fallen Angel, Soulsearchers and Company and David's Spike miniseries were "grandfathered" into the contract, so as to not be affected by it. The first new project undertaken by 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.
In April 2017, following the conclusion of the Spider-Man storyline "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy", which saw the return of Ben Reilly, Marvel premiered the monthly series Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, with David as writer. 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, 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. His other Spider-Man work during this decade included a 2019 five-issue miniseries Symbiote Spider-Man, which holds a 7.5 out of 10 rating at the review aggregator Comic Book Roundup, and the 2020 follow-up miniseries Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality, which holds a 7.6 rating at Comic Book Roundup.
David's career as a novelist developed concurrently with his comic-book writing career. 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. Although the sale was made before he wrote any comic books, the novel was not published until eighteen months later, in 1987. The novel depicts the reappearance of King Arthur in modern-day New York City. Another early novel of his, Howling Mad, is about a wolf that turns into a human after being bitten by a werewolf. 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. 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. Penguin rereleased Howling Mad and the Psi-Man books under David's actual name.
On many occasions, he offered criticisms of specific publishers, as when he criticized Wizard magazine for ageism. He 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. He criticized publishers for various other business practices, including Marvel and Image Comics. He defended said companies from criticism he feels is unfounded, as when he defended Marvel from a February 17, 1992, Barron's magazine article. He criticized deletionists on Wikipedia on more than one occasion.
On occasion, he disagreed publicly with specific industry personalities such as Frank Miller and Jim Shooter. Particularly publicized were his disagreements with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane in 1992 and 1993, in the wake of the formation of Image Comics, the company McFarlane co-founded. This came to a head during a public debate they participated in at Philadelphia's Comicfest convention in October 1993, which was moderated by artist George Pérez. McFarlane claimed that Image was not being treated fairly by the media, and by David in particular. The three judges, Maggie Thompson, editor of the Comics Buyer's Guide, William Christensen of Wizard Press, and John Danovich of the magazine Hero Illustrated, voted 2–1 in favor of David, with Danovich voting the debate a tie. David later criticized McFarlane for other business practices, and engaged in public disagreements with The Comics Journal editor Gary Groth, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada, writer/director Kevin Smith, DC Comics Vice President and Executive Editor Dan DiDio, and John Byrne. Despite his differences with Byrne, David stated that he was still a fan of Byrne's, citing Byrne's work on X-Men, Fantastic Four, Next Men, Alpha Flight and Babe.
Politically, David identified himself as liberal. He 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. He also became a staunch critic of President Donald Trump and his administration, criticizing his policies on a weekly basis. He spoke out in favor of Israel's right to defend itself from aggressors, and opined that certain criticisms of Israel indicated bias and double standards. He favored gun control, and held progressive or liberal views on LGBT issues, including favoring gay marriage and allowing openly homosexual individuals to serve in the military. He opposed capital punishment. He was 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. He was a promoter and activist for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which comes to the aid of such creators and retailers. He criticized ideas associated with liberalism or political correctness, such as certain publicized cases of alleged sexual harassment or discrimination that he deems unfounded, and did not shy away from criticizing liberals and Democrats, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, and Barack Obama.
Social Network
Peter David was active in engaging with fans through his blog and social media platforms. However, specific details about his social media presence are not widely documented.
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 (June 1985). 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 (October 1985 – January 1986) 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.
David wrote a MadroX miniseries that year, whose success led to a relaunch of a monthly X-Factor volume 3 written by him. This was a revamped version of the title starring both Madrox and other members of the former X-Factor title that David had written in the early 1990s, now working as investigators in a detective agency of that name. David's work on the title garnered praise from Ain't it Cool News, and David stated that the opt in/opt out policy and greater planning with which Marvel now executes crossover storylines made his second stint on the title far easier. His decision to explicitly establish male characters Shatterstar and Rictor as sharing a sexual attraction to one another (a confirmation of clues that had been established in X-Force years earlier in issues such as X-Force #25, 34, 43, 49, 56 and X-Force '99 Annual), drew criticism from Shatterstar's co-creator, Rob Liefeld, though Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada supported David's story. David eventually won a 2011 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book for his work on the title.
David's other 2000s comics based on licensed or adapted properties include Halo: Helljumper, a 2009 miniseries based on the Halo video game, a 2009 Ben 10: Alien Force manga book published by Del Rey, Ben Folds Four, a "Little Mermaid" story in Jim Valentino's Fractured Fables anthology that was praised by Ain't It Cool News, an adaptation of the 1982 film Tron that was released to tie in with that film's 2010 sequel, and a John Carter of Mars prequel to the 2012 feature film. In 2010, he co-wrote The Spider-Man Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles Spun from Marvel's Web with Robert Greenberger. David wrote the script for Avengers: Season One, an original graphic novel published to promote the DVD release of The Avengers.
In 2014, David wrote a six-part story-arc for The Phantom for publishing company Hermes Press, a story that David, reportedly had wanted to write for many years.
David's 2009 novel Tigerheart is a re-imagining of Peter Pan with a mix of new and old characters, told as a Victorian bedtime story, much like the classic tale. It was praised by Ain't It Cool News, and honored by the School Library Journal as one of 2008's Best Adult Books for High School Students. His Sir Apropos of Nothing fantasy trilogy, Sir Apropos of Nothing, The Woad to Wuin and Tong Lashing, features characters and settings completely of David's own creation, as does his 2007 fantasy novel, Darkness of the Light, which is the first in a new trilogy of novels titled The Hidden Earth. The second installment, The Highness of the Low, was scheduled to be published in September 2009, but David related on his blog that it was delayed until the winter of 2012.
David stated that he tried to block out different days and different times to work on different projects. He usually worked in the morning, for example, on novels, and did comics-related work in the afternoon. Having previously used Smith Corona typewriters, he wrote on a Sony Vaio desktop computer, using Microsoft Word for his comics and novel work, and Final Draft for his screenplays. When writing novels, he sometimes outlined the story, and sometimes improvised as he was writing. Following his stroke in December 2012, David began using DragonDictate to write. Todd McFarlane's original art for the cover of The Incredible Hulk #340, featuring Wolverine, which McFarlane gave to David as a gift, hung in David's office.
David stated that his favorite female character of his own creation was Lee, the protagonist of Fallen Angel, which he said is derived from the positive female fan reaction to that character. Characters that David did not write but which he expressed an interest in writing for the comics medium included Batman, Tarzan, Doc Savage, the Dragonriders of Pern, the Steed/Peel Avengers, and Dracula. He specifically mentioned interest in writing a Tarzan vs. the Phantom story.
* David's short story, "Colors Seen by Candlelight", appeared in Tales of Zorro, the first collection of original Zorro short fiction ever authorized by Zorro Productions, Inc. The anthology, edited by Richard Dean Starr, was published by Moonstone Books in 2008.
* In 2009 David organized a satirical round-robin story called "Potato Noon", organized by David and hosted on his website. which was inspired by the announcement of Russet Noon, an unauthorized fan fiction novel based on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Authors including Hugh Casey, Keith R.A. DeCandido, and Kevin Killiany participated in the story, with characters such as Michael Dukakis, Dan Quayle, and Ernest Hemingway appearing alongside satirical versions of Meyer's characters. David conceived the satire as a not-for-profit venture, and while he had no plans to publish the completed "Potato Moon", he allowed for the possibility of a future charity release to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Education
Peter David attended New York University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. This educational background initially prepared him for a career in journalism before he transitioned into writing for comic books.
Overall, Peter David's legacy in the comic book industry is profound, with his work continuing to inspire new generations of writers and fans alike. Despite facing personal and financial challenges, his contributions to popular culture remain significant and enduring.
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.
