I haven’t read much of his comic book work (not a snob, just can’t afford to keep up my old hobby), but I have read most of his books. I must say that the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel “Q-in-Law” was one of the funniest books I have ever read.
Anyone else find the guy amusing?
At this very moment, I’m reading The Woad To Wuin, so yes, I read Peter David’s books, and I enjoy them. 
I haven’t read any of his comic stuff, but I’ve read the first Sir Apropos of Nothing book (which amused me to no end) and Knight Life, the one about King Arthur running for mayor of New York City.
In addition to being just plain funny, my absolute favorite thing about David is the fact that, in Knight Life, Morgan LeFaye has spent the last however-many years living in what she thinks of as hell-on-earth – Verona, New Jersey. Which is exactly where I live.
I know I had more to say, but my boss came by and distracted me, and I’ve completely forgotten it. sigh
I, on the other hand, have only read his comic-book work. But I love it. His sense of humor is riotous, he weaves both subtle and slapstick flawlessly. And through it all, he puts together excellent serious plotlines.
Young Justice, Supergirl and Aquaman were all excellent examples of his work, if you ever wish to check out his comic-book repetoire.
One of my favorite jokes of all-time comes from the last issues of his masterful run on the Justice title, as Marvel’s New Universe was dying. I’d tell it here, but it’s too visual a joke to relate other than in person.
A friend of mine was a penciller for Marvel and DC back in the 80’s and 90’s (Rick Leonardi) and said Peter David was his favorite writer to work with. I enjoyed his books back then, but haven’t kept up with the stuff in a while. Looks like he worked on Spider-Man 2099 with him fairly recently, so they are still at it.
Rick liked the fact that he was allowed to put his own ideas in the backgrounds and even suggest story elements. Some authors didn’t allow the pencillers any leeway in what they produced.
Peter David is the very first comic writer that made me look for “Oh my God! Who wrote this?!”: Death of Jean DeWolff. I was stunned (in a good way). I also liked the other work he was doing for PPTSSM and the Hulk. I lost track of his work since the 80’s.
I liked his work on Babylon 5, which brought him to my attention. Recently, I read all 3 of his Apropos series, which are good, funny, anti-fantasy books. I think I’m going to pick up Knight Life next if I can find it.
It depends. I really enjoyed his run on X-Factor, as much for Larry Stroman’s art as for the writing. Dialogue and characterization were his strong suits; plotting was not (although that could always be the Editor’s fault, I suppose). I particularly disliked his run on Aquaman, wherein no character was so minor or unimportant that he or she couldn’t suddenly receive super-powers (or, in Aqualad’s case, additional super-powers) out of the blue, with no more than a panel’s notice. To the extent that superhero comics have any integrity as a genre, this undermined it a lot.
His column in Comic Buyer’s Guide, “But I Digress,” is always entertaining.
Great guy. Here’s his official site:
And be nice to the webmaster, he’s my husband. Or not… 
I’ve never read any of his work outside the Star Trek universe but I love everything I’ve ever read by him sans one of TNG’s hardbacks, which was just atrocious.
His New Frontier series is hysterical one moment and deadly serious the next. I love that… it’s one of my favorites.
I haven’t read much of his comic work, just his Trek novels. He doesn’t take himself so seriously and he obviously has fun with his work. Some Trek writers take their source material so seriously that their books are ploddingly dull and the characters devoid of humor. I’ve never seen a David book where that is the case. He’s also got an amazing eye for detail and can tie together the most obscure tidbits into a believable plot. There are very few loose threads in his universe
I’m going to have to look into his other works. It’s been a long time since I’ve read any of his stuff 
I was unaware of any of Peter David’s work outside a few Trek novels. Q-In-Law is hilarious (and touching in spots) and I was completely wrapped up by Q-Squared - I thought he undertook a pretty ambitious project in weaving so many threads together and that he did so very nicely without being too… “pat” about it. I’ve also read Imzadi and one other whose title escapes me right now - something maybe about a rock and a hard place? Since I’m only a TNG fan, and not too interested in other Trek tracks, I haven’t read any of his non-TNG Trek books, so thanks for mentioning his other work - I’ve been short on interesting reading material these days, so I’ll look for him.
I’m a huge Peter David fan. I had a subscription to his run on Hulk back when I was, like, 7, and I love those books just as much now as I did back then.
Thought his Supergirl was fantastic, too.
Big-time PAD fan (PADophile?) here. It’s easier for me to list the PAD stuff I haven’t read (the Sir Apropos of Nothing series) than to list the PAD stuff I have read and/or owned (everything else). Funny writer who likes to make you think, a brilliant combination.
Notable PAD highlights:
The Incredible Hulk. 'Nuff said, really. That was, what, ten or eleven years on one title? I definitely liked the idea of “curing” Bruce with psychoanalysis and a merger of his MPD characters. Rick Jones as the ultimate fanboy was a hoot 'n a half (“I always carry an emergency parachute with me in case I have to leap out of an exploding Skrull saucer.” “That’s ridiculous.” “Why? I had to, didn’t I?”)
Q-In-Law. Funniest Trek book ever. Arguably the funniest novel ever. If I had to be stranded on a deserted island with one book, this would be it.
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. Forgot the issue number, but one of PAD’s earliest Spidey-stories was “Leap for My Heart (or Spring Is In the Air),” which starts off with Spider-Man saving the Toad from a suicide attempt, continues with Spidey being tailed by the Toad and Frog-Man in a bid to be his partner, and ends with a team-up between the Toad, Frog-Man, and the Amazing Spider-Kid. Definitely worth hunting down for the sheer silliness of it all.
Deep Space Nine: The Seige. I’m not much of a DS9 fan, but this novel had me on the edge of my seat almost from the first paragraph. Tragic, scary, and unpredictable all at the same time.
I’ve never read any of his comic book or Trek stuff. I thought Apropos of Nothing was pretty good and quite funny. Woad was less so, and Knight Life even less so, though that one had a fairly amusing premise. I’d pick up his stuff again at the library if I needed to kill some time.
I’m not much of a fan of Comic Book Writers, but I do like David’s work…
However, Hulk:The End depressed the hell out of me.
[QUOTE=rjung]
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. Forgot the issue number, but one of PAD’s earliest Spidey-stories was “Leap for My Heart (or Spring Is In the Air),” which starts off with Spider-Man saving the Toad from a suicide attempt, continues with Spidey being tailed by the Toad and Frog-Man in a bid to be his partner, and ends with a team-up between the Toad, Frog-Man, and the Amazing Spider-Kid. Definitely worth hunting down for the sheer silliness of it all.
[QUOTE]
Wasn’t that one by JM DeMatteis? I know PAD was writing PPTSSM around that time, but I seem to remember thinking that it was amazing that JM could write such serious stories and comedies as well.
I used The Death of Jean DeWolff in a college paper about how the Comics Code Authority was outdated and needed to be abolished. That story line broke about 4 of the codes laws and it still got the approval.
I just finished Knight Life last week and thought it was good. Not great, but good. I’m planning on picking up the Apropos books next. PAD’s Star Trek novels are about the only ones I’ve read, and haven’t been disappointed yet (though Imzadi II was a bit slow for my liking.)
For anyone who liked Knight Life, he’s come up with a sequel to it: One Knight Only.
He’s one of the few authors whose books I’ll get just because he wrote them.
He also co-wrote (and I believe co-produced) the sadly short-lived Nickelodeon TV show Space Cases.
I’m 98.7% sure it was a PAD story. And IIRC, the issue right afterwards was another PAD comedy, “The Commuter Cometh” – Spider-Man has to track down a burgular who lives in the suburbs. Hard to do web-swinging when there are no tall buildings around.
It also broke about a half-dozen comic book rules, including the ever-infamous “Anyone dying will only do so in a valiant sacrifice to save the hero’s life.” 
The only PAD Trek book that I didn’t care for was A Rock and a Hard Place. Can’t figure out why, but the book just turned me off for some reason.
I’ve enjoyed his Trek novels but didn’t realize he’d written so much other stuff…till now.