The world Peter David leaves behind is a webbed one. Like Spider-Man, whom he wrote for several years, Peter spun a web trapping unsuspecting people, until we all found how connected we were to one another.
Social media is filled, since news broke of his dying in his sleep Saturday night, with stories and anecdotes, praise and appreciation. His biography is fairly well-known, so I won’t recount it here but instead, talk about the Peter I knew.
We may have met at an August Party con, but we first formally met in 1982 when Howard Weinstein asked if I had articles his friend could write for Comics Scene, having just lost his job at Playboy Press. We settled on a piece explaining the Direct Sales market to the mainstream readers I likely had. He did his homework, interviewed people, and along the way, was so impressed with Marvel’s Carol Kalish that she wound up hiring him for the Marketing and Sales department.
Of course, he went on to write for the House of Ideas, but as he grew restless, he wanted to go freelance full-time, and we discussed this. After Mike Gold hired him for The Phantom, I added his writing Star Trek for me at DC Comics. We had a good time here which led to the acclaimed The Atlantis Chronicles and even the underrated Blasters Special. As we became friends beyond writer and editor, we found we had much in common, and the bond deepened.
In 1990, Deb was laid off for the first time while I was in California on the set of The Flash. He happened to call that night, and when Peter heard, he asked what he could do to help her, even volunteering to come over so she wasn’t alone.
He was very encouraging when I dipped a toe into fiction writing, joining him, Mike Friedman, and Carmen Carter on Star Trek: The Next Generation: Doomsday World. At the same time, Peter, Mike, and I wound up forming a tight connection that led to many outstanding projects and memories through the years.
Many of those threads came together in 2001 as several of us trooped to Atlanta for Peter’s wedding to Kathleen O’Shea. As good as the wedding was, the reception for the out-of-towners was even better as we comfortably lunged and swapped stories. My 14-year-old daughter Kate was being entranced by Harlan Ellison as Keith DeCandio, legendary Maggie Thompson, and Bill Mumy (Peter’s cocreator fo Space Cases), among others chatted the night away. The following morning the party bus went to Emory College’s campus to collect Geore Takei (who cowrote a Trek annual with Peter for me, among other connections).
On more than occassion, Peter was telling me a story (he had so many) and paused to marvel at the kind of life had led. He was truly appreciative of those experiences and people he encountered along the way.
Of course, a highlight may be the work we did, and you didn’t really see, on After Earth, the Will Smith-led misfire. Having previously worked for Smith’s production company; he was asked to tackle the transmedia materials for the Sony film but couldn’t meet the onerous deadline. “But I have some friends,” he told them, leading us to an incredible collaboration for the following year.
As he was writing the novelization, he had his stroke, and one day he called and said he couldn’t finish it, could Mike and I step in? Of course. We worked on the final 40% of the book, and thankfully, by then, we knew one another’s styles so well that the reader couldn’t tell.
While that was the first time, it was far from the last when Peter tossed work my way when his schedule or exclusive contract at Marvel prevented him.
He joined me in Hunt Valley, MD, for the first time at Shore Leave XI in 1989 and kept being invited back. Oddly, he was concerned his welcome might grow thin, so he invented Mystery Trekkie Theater to ensure he would keep being invited. When Mike joined us in 1992, we began what was nearly thirty years of wacky performances and skits as we skewered the weaker Trek offerings. Our rehearsals the night before were legendary as we laughed ourselves silly, once laughing so hard we woke Ann Crispin in the next room.
One thing about Peter after he became a professional writer was that he never stopped being a fan of comics, science fiction, movies, and more. So, it was no surprise that he returned to his fannish roots in 2004 to pen Monty Sauron’s Flying Nazgul, which was produced and performed at Shore Leave by the Usual Suspects.
Peter loved conventions as both a fan and a guest. When Stony Brook ran I-Con for many years, he and Kathleen threw their doors open for a huge party for the guests. Similarly, they hosted a mammoth party the night of the Dragon Con masquerade, with Peter leaving to co-host with his collaborator George Pérez. The two worked on comics together and shared a love for musical theater, each trying to top the other in their regional community productions.
He spun his web so far that he was often able to find his peers’ work whenever he could. The social media threads share how many of us benefited from that generosity.
Yes, he fueded with several other creators, usually with good reasons. He was critical of decisions the major companies made and complained about them with reasoning in his weekly Comics Buyer’s Guide column. He was always well-researched and prepared to debate any point–just ask Todd McFarlane.
Peter was fiercely protective of his friends. The day Robbie died, Peter called to tell me about the editors at Becker & Mayer asked him to rewrite my manuscript for The Batman Vault from top to bottom, which they deemed “an unpublishable mess.” He told me he read the work, considered it perfectly fine, and rejected their offer (Matthew Manning did a polish). He and Mike also trekked his hospital so we could rehearse that year’s Mystery Trekkie Theater, which delighted my son with no end.
As successful as he was, he was also ambitious, and I watched with regret how he kept reaching and having the world swat him down. There were countless aborted projects for producers in Canada, China, and America, things that could have taken his career to another level, that never happened. Despite success in animation (Ben 10 and Young Justice), live-action (Space Case, Babylon 5), and prose beyond Star Trek, he was constantly being thwarted. At one point he complained his agent couldn’t sell any of his novels, so I helped him find a new agent only to see him continue to struggle.
Then, three years ago, his body betrayed him, and the slow, steady decline began. His pain ended on Saturday, but I am so grateful to see the accolades and memories across the media sphere. Among the recommended reads are ones from Keith DeCandido, Blair Learn, and Joseph Berenato. Starting Saturday, his peers will gather at conventions to swap stories and sing his praises, as he deserves.
We last spoke just over a year ago, a good day for him, and we chatted mostly about the Mets, and it was good to hear him. I wish there was time for one more call, one more collaboration, one more meal filled with laughs.
#Tags: After Earth, Bill Mumy, Blair Learn, Blasters Special, Carmen Carter, Carol Kalish, Comics Scene, Crazy 8 Press, DC Comics, Dragon COn, George Pérez, George Takei, Harlan Ellison, Howard Weiinstein, I-Con, Joseph Berenato, kathleen David, Keith DeCandido, Maggie Thompson, Matthew Manning, Michael Jan Friedman, Mystery Trekkie Theater, Peter David, Playboy Press, Shore Leave, Space Cases, The Atlantis Chronicles, The Batman Vault, Will Smith