Best-Selling Comic Book Writer Peter David Asks Fans To Help With His Tax Bill

Peter David, the best-selling writer behind cult favorites and mainstream hits like Young Justice, [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Peter David, the best-selling writer behind cult favorites and mainstream hits like Young Justice, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor, is facing a massive tax bill and potential financial ruin, so he's turned to his readers to help out.

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(Photo: Russ Burlingame)

David says that he owes more than $80,000 in back taxes and fees from income earned during his time as the co-creator of Space Cases, a series that ran in 1996 and 1997 on Nickelodeon.

According to David, his ex-wife took money he had earmarked for paying his tax bill during a contentious divorce, and he had been paying it off slowly ever since.

"I tried to make payment arrangements with the IRS but they didn't last, because throughout the year I'd send in the payments but then on April 15 I had no money to pay the income tax because I'd already sent them all my spare money," David explains at his blog. "Then they seemed to just forget about it. Which was great. Except recently they now seem to have remembered. And they want all the money, plus penalty and interest, or they are going to financially destroy me."

He's asking for help to build up an $88,000 payment to put the two decades' worth of stress behind him, explaining that he had never discussed this issue before because "Pretty much everyone has private things that have happened to them that they don't want to discuss publicly. Well…this is mine."

Describing his current situation as "desperate trouble," David provides fans at the link above with details about donating to his cause via Paypal.

Between his Facebook and Twitter accounts, David has about 18,000 followers, and by his reasoning, that means if he had $10 for each of those people, he would be in the clear with some money to spare for any income taxes that come due next month.

Fans rallied to David's side once before already -- to help him with unexpected medical bills after he had a serious stroke in late 2012. Then, with less apparent urgency on payment deadlines, he mostly urged anyone who wished to help to buy his books directly through his website to increase his profit margin. This time around, hoping to cut out the middle man, he's offered fans who send him a check or money order the opportunity to send along any of his comics or books that they'd like signed, and he will sign and return them.

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