Chad's Jackass Comic Creator Interviews from 2001: Peter David

[Concluding our trip into the past where I was 18 and apparently had an odd obsession with comic book creator underwear. And "chicks." Again, I would like to apologise to all those involved--and thank those who had no tolerance for my jackassery.]

Interview With . . . Peter David!
If you know me, then odds are you’ve heard me talk about Peter David. To put it mildly, I love his novels. I think the first book I read of his was his Hulk novel, and that was because it was comic related. Eventually, my love of Star Trek led me to start picking up some of those novels. I recognized David’s name from comics and such, so I read Q-Sqaured (the fact that I like Q didn’t hurt). It blew me away. It was a work of genius, so I quickly read everything else the library had to offer me of his, and I have been since.

Me: Tell us a little about yourself.

David: Peter David is a prolific author whose career, and continued popularity, spans nearly two decades. He has worked in every conceivable media: Television, film, books (fiction, non-fiction and audio), short stories, and comic books, and acquired followings in all of them. In the literary field, Peter has had over fifty novels published, including numerous appearances on the New York Times Bestsellers List. His novels include Sir Apropos of Nothing (A “fast, fun, heroic fantasy satire”--Publishers Weekly), Knight Life, Howling Mad, and the Psi-Man adventure series. He is the co-creator and author of the bestselling Star Trek: New Frontier series for Pocket Books, and has also written such Trek novels as Q-Squared, The Siege, Q-in-Law, Vendetta, I, Q (with John de Lancie), A Rock and a Hard Place and Imzadi. He produced the three Babylon 5 Centauri Prime novels, and has also had his short fiction published in such collections as Shock Rock, Shock Rock II, and Otherwere, as well as Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Peter’s comic book resume includes an award-winning twelve-year run on The Incredible Hulk, and he has also worked on such varied and popular titles as Supergirl, Young Justice, Soulsearchers and Company, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor, Star Trek, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens, and many others. He has also written comic book related novels, such as The Hulk: What Savage Beast, and co-edited The Ultimate Hulk short story collection. Furthermore, his opinion column But I Digress has been running in the industry trade newspaper The Comic Buyers’ Guide for nearly a decade, and in that time has been the paper's consistently most popular feature and was also collected into a trade paperback edition.

Peter is the co-creator, with popular science fiction icon Bill Mumy (of Lost in Space and Babylon 5 fame) of the Cable Ace Award-nominated science fiction series Space Cases, which ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon. He has written several scripts for the Hugo Award winning TV series Babylon 5, and the sequel series, Crusade. He has also written several films for Full Moon Entertainment and co-produced two of them, including two instalments in the popular Trancers series as well as the science fiction western spoof Oblivion, which won the Gold Award at the 1994 Houston International Film Festival for best Theatrical Feature Film, Fantasy/Horror category.

Peter's awards and citations include: the Haxtur Award 1996 (Spain), Best Comic script; OZCon 1995 award (Australia), Favourite International Writer; Comic Buyers Guide 1995 Fan Awards, Favourite writer; Wizard Fan Award Winner 1993; Golden Duck Award for Young Adult Series (Starfleet Academy), 1994; UK Comic Art Award, 1993; Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, 1993. He lives in New York with his wife, Kathleen, and his three children, Shana, Gwen and Ariel.

Me: What was your first big break of sorts in the writing field?

David: Writing Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man.

Me: What have you written? And try to keep it under a 1000 words ;)

David: See #1.

Me: What are you currently writing?

David: Responses to this interview.

Me: What do you think of Enterprise so far?

David: Could be better, could be worse.

Me: You ever notice how the ending to Q-Squared could be modified slightly so that all the problems with Brent Spiner and make-up not covering his age would no longer be an issue?

David: Hadn't really given it much thought.

Me: Boxers or briefs?

David: Depends if you're fighting a pugilist or an attorney.

Me: Summer or winter?

David: Summer. Less clothing on women.

Me: Cats or dogs?

David: Cats.

Me: Any cool stories involving a chick?

David: I once stood at an incubator and watched a whole bunch hatch. That was cool.

Me: I just gave you a 100 untraceable bullets, who or what do you use them on?

David: The guy who thought of this question.

Me: Who are some of your favourite writers?

David: Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Robert Crais, David McCullough.

Me: Who is your hero?

David: My wife.

Me: Who are some of the artists that you really want to work with?

David: Alex Ross. That'd be cool. Dave McKean. Adam Hughes.

Me: Did you design New Frontier as a possible TV series or was the use of pre-existing characters just because you thought them to be interesting? Not to mention the little one-liners about Morgan Lefler looking like Majel Barret Roddenbery . . .

David: No, it was always designed to be a book series. Using some pre-existing characters was suggested by John Ordover.

Me: Are you going to be doing any more B5 work? For novels, TV, movies, comics, anything?

David: Dunno.

Me: You've written numerous Q novels, do you find the way he's been portrayed to be contrary to the way that you view the character?

David: Sometimes. Wasn't wild about any of his Voyager appearances.

Me: Can you tell people, who won't listen to me, why they should read New Frontier?

David: Nah. If they won't listen to you, who has no vested interest, why would they listen to me?

Me: Who do you love?

David: My wife and children.

Me: Any final words?

David: Well, no, what with not dying anytime soon.