Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Peter

I first met Peter David when he'd just become a writer at Marvel. He was the first comic pro I really got to know, and we'd been friends for around 40 years. Alas, a series of illnesses has caused him to shuffle off this mortal coil, and I'd like to think he's with his buddy Harlan Ellison and my buddy Leah Adezio having a snark-off in the hereafter. So many memories have been flooding in. The way he always seemed to travel in a cocoon of noise, so that you could tell when he was coming and going like a Doppler effect. His amazement at my flip phone that reminded him of a Star Trek communicator. The births of his two youngest daughters, Ariel (now a mom of two) and Caroline, and Ariel's bat mitzvah. All the conventions where we had the privilege of sitting next to him and his amazing partner Kathleen, puppeteer extraordinaire. How thrilled I was to give him at least a couple finished pages of every comic he wrote that Robin inked. How far he would go for a really bad pun, and not always in the best taste. His quick wit and smile. His pride in his four daughters. His obvious love for Kath. The way he sneaked my name into a Star Trek novel he wrote. All the lovely folks I met because of him. And his writing, sometimes groan-inducing but always fun and clever. I'll miss the contributions he could have made if only, if only... RIP Peter.

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