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PETER DAVID EXCLUSIVE TO MARVEL
by Newsarama
Saturday afternoon on his "Spotlight" panel at WonderCon, veteran writer Peter David announced he has agreed to a three-year exclusive contract with Marvel Comics, the first such contract he has signed in his freelance career.
"They asked me," David said straightforwardly, asked why he decided to sign with Marvel. "It's really not much more complicated than that. They made me a great offer that boiled down to, 'Hey, you wanna keep doing the exact same thing you're doing now, except we'll cover medical insurance and we'll guarantee you work."
This will be the first time David has signed an exclusive contract in his freelancing life, though David did write while a full-time Marvel employee as sales manager, "So naturally I couldn't write for DC or other publishers since that would have been a clear conflict of interest."
David said this was the first time he felt like he wanted to be in an exclusive freelance situation...
"In the past, I doubt I would have been amenable to it since I was getting plenty of work from DC, but I haven't heard from them in a while, and although they keep telling me that they want to work with me, well...talk is cheap and utility bills aren't," he said.
As to why he hasn't heard from DC in a while?
"Beats me. I'm reasonably sure they haven't lost my phone number. But I haven't been offered any work since blasting Fallen Angel loose. Feel free to ask them what's up."
So while he won't be writing any DC properties for at least three years, that does not mean fans of David's work outside the "Big Two" are s*** outta luck. Asked how it will affect his IDW work, for instance, David replied,
"Not at all. When Tom Brevoort, who was the one who made the initial approach to me about it, first brought it up, I told him I couldn't see myself ditching such titles as Fallen Angel and [Claypool's] Soulsearchers and Company. Marvel came back and told me that they would write waivers for those titles and other works-in-progress into the contract."
As to David's now exclusive relationship with Marvel, just a few years ago even he would've had a hard time imaging this scenario. Though he'd continued to work with them throughout, his relationship with the publisher a few years ago (i.e. and bluntly put, the Bill Jemas years) wouldn't have exactly been described as healthy.
"But that was then," he said. "Time tends to heal wounds, plus when Bill departed much of the circus atmosphere went with him. Joe [Quesada] and I get along fine now; he was the prime instigator for the Hulk mini-series that wound up growing into "Tempest Fugit." And Tom Brevoort and Andy Schmidt have done a Herculean job in reviving my Marvel career, with Andy getting Madrox into print through literal force of will - which led to X-Factor - and Tom offering me Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. And it was my work on those titles that prompted Marvel to come to me and say, 'We love what you're doing; we want you on the team full-time'."
"Full-time" very likely also means "more time", as David fully expects to add more work to his schedule that already includes X-Factor and Friendly Neighborhood Spidey...
"Marvel editors have been calling right and left," David said. "And I'm getting involved in some really fun projects. I did a couple of those insane rewrite-the-balloons-in-a-romance-story, including - get this - an 18-page Patsy Walker story. Plus I'm writing a bunch of issues for Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, which is a hoot. Nice, straightforward tales for all ages that aren't bogged down in on-going continuity.
"Plus there's still the Wonder Man limited series, and other projects I can't really discuss yet."
So as opposed to projects he is working on, how about Marvel franchises or characters he'd like to work on..?
"Wouldn't mind working on Thor at some point," Davis said. "Had fun with him in a couple issues of Captain Marvel. Also Hercules...maybe team them up for something?"
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