Peter David (September 23, 1956 - May 24, 2025) was an American writer whose career spanned decades across literature, comic books, television, and film, earning several awards over the course of his work. In the Ghostbusters franchise, he contributed one issue to IDW Publishing.
Ghostbusters Work
David wrote the script for Ghostbusters: What in Samhain Just Happened?!, a Halloween-themed one-shot published by IDW Publishing on October 20, 2010. The issue was the fourth in IDW's series of holiday-themed Ghostbusters one-shots. The creative team included Dan Schoening on pencils, Luis Antonio Delgado on colors, Neil Uyetake on letters, and Tom Waltz as editor. Cover art was produced by Nick Runge and Dan Schoening.
The story begins when television producer Artie Lester, haunted by a pumpkin-headed ghost at his mansion in East Hampton, attempts to hire the Ghostbusters to deal with it. The team declines once they learn Lester intends to film the bust and air it as a television special. Janine Melnitz, unhappy about her pay, secretly accepts the job herself to claim the fifty-thousand-dollar fee Lester offered, arguing she knows as much about ghostbusting as the guys do. She is quickly captured by the ghost, who is eventually identified as Sam Hain: a deceased escape artist and former business associate of Lester whose spirit returned after Lester declared him dead and took over his mansion. The Ghostbusters race to the scene and find Janine held near a fading dimensional soft spot. Egon Spengler pulls Janine to safety while Ray Stantz locks a proton stream on Sam Hain. Janine then intervenes and convinces the team to release him, and Sam Hain passes peacefully to the other side.
The issue is packed with visual references to the original Ghostbusters films and The Real Ghostbusters, including cameos from entities such as Samhain's goblin minions, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Vigo's portrait, and several one-off creatures from the animated series. The issue was later collected in IDW Publishing Comics: Haunted Holidays TPB.