Peter David - Public Persona

Public Persona

On more than one occasion, editorial problems or corporate pressure to modify or re-script his plotlines have prompted 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. He also resigned from Spider-Man 2099 to protest the firing of editor Joey Cavalieri, and from Aquaman over other creative differences. When David abruptly left his first stint on The Incredible Hulk due to editorial pressures, some of the plot points of the character that David established were retconned by later creative teams.

In his "But I Digress" column, which has appeared in the Comics Buyer's Guide since July 27, 1990, and in his blog, in operation since April 2002, David has been outspoken in many of his views pertaining to the comic book industry, and numerous other subjects. He 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. 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. A father of four daughters, David has worked on a number of series that feature female leads, such as Supergirl, Fallen Angel and She-Hulk, and has lamented that the American comic book market is not very supportive of such books. David has spoken out about fans who are abusive or threatening to creators, and against copyright infringement, particularly that committed through peer-to-peer file sharing and posting literary works in their entirety on the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder.

On many occasions, he has offered criticisms of specific publishers, as when he criticized Wizard magazine for ageism. He 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. He has also criticized publishers for various other business practices, including Marvel and Image Comics. He has also defended said companies from criticism he feels is unfounded, as when he defended Marvel from a February 17, 1992 Barron’s magazine article. He has criticized deletionists on Wikipedia on more than one occasion.

On occasion, he has also 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 has since criticized McFarlane for other business practices, and has also 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 has stated that he is still a fan of Byrne's, citing Byrne's work on X-Men, Fantastic Four, Next Men, Alpha Flight and Babe.

Politically, David identifies 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 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. He favors gun control, and holds progressive or liberal views on LGBT issues, including favoring gay marriage and allowing openly homosexual individuals to serve in the military. He opposes capital punishment. He 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. He is a promoter and activist for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which comes to the aid of such creators and retailers. He has, however, also criticized ideas associated with liberalism or political correctness, such as certain publicized cases of alleged sexual harassment or discrimination that he deems unfounded, and has not shied away from criticizing liberals and Democrats, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy and Barack Obama.