IMPACT University Spotlight: Peter David

May 21, 2009

Check out this article excerpt from the 2008 edition of Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. IMPACT event coordinator, Greg Hatfield, asks super-star comics and graphic novel writer Peter David about his experiences as a writer. Find out what he has to say below.

Q: [Y]ou have worked on and developed many of comics’ most iconic characters. How important is continuous characterization? Some writers change the characteristics of long-running characters until they’re no longer recognizable. One current example is Batman’s character in All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Frank Miller writes Batman like he’s never been portrayed before, shocking many readers. Is this fair to the readers?

A: Sure it’s fair. Many fans wring their hands and decry changes in characters and characterization as if this is something remotely new. People think what makes a character iconic is that he never changes, and that’s just not right. What makes a character iconic is that he is extremely malleable. No matter what you do to them, no matter how much you man change their look, background or environment, they are still recognizable that same character. Tarzan remains Tarzan whether he’s an English lord with Jane by his side or a confused New York resident with Jane now a police detective (although the TV version kinda sucked for entirely different reasons).

Q: Do writers have a responsibility to their readers to keep their characters constant?

A: Change is constant in comics. Change is good. If iconic characters couldn’t survive change, they wouldn’t be iconic.

Q: What’s better, creating a new character or working on an established one?

A: They both have advantages. The nice thing about a new character—presuming it’s creator-owned like Fallen Angel—is that you’re in total control of everything that’s going on. It’s a blank slat that you have total license to write on. An established character naturally has tighter rules. . . but it also presents a greater challenge to a writer in terms of finding new and different ways to keep the character interesting for changing audiences.

Q: What’s the one thing every writer should know?

A: Don’t take rejection personally. It’s not a commentary on you as a person. Keep your own self-esteem separate from your work. It helps to have a huge ego.

And that they should buy my book Writing for Comics [and Graphic Novels] with Peter David, published by IMPACT Books, so they can stop asking me for advice all the time.

Sign up for IMPACT University’s Pro Comics and Art Workshop and get more advice on the art of writing for comics and graphic novels, straight from Peter himself!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Comics, Graphic novels, Peter David. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Comics, Graphic novels, Peter David