With sadness but no great shock, we're hearing that Peter David died last night. The sadness is because he was a helluva nice, funny guy. The lack of shock is because Peter has been in and out of hospitals with one serious ailment after another for years now. I actually first-drafted an obit a long time back like real news sources do but I don't feel like using it here today. Hearts all over the comic book/fantasy community are going out today to his wonderful wife Kathleen and to his family and loved ones.
Peter got into the comic book industry first in the marketing/sales end of things, then segued to writing…mostly for Marvel first, then for everyone. He also wrote novels and TV scripts and just about everything. I'd say "I don't know anyone who didn't like the guy" but in truth, his success and popularity were so immediate and total than a couple of folks were nakedly jealous of him. If you wander around Facebook over the next week or so, you may be stunned at how many friends and fans he had…and he deserved every accolade.
Wikipedia has a better rundown of his career than I could possibly assemble and I really don't know what else to say. I'd say "I'll miss him terribly" and that would be true…but even truer is that I've missed him for years now. We used to spend a lot of Comic-Con time together and every shared minute and every shared meal was a joy. So was reading something he'd written and I'm sure people will continue to do that for a long, long time.