David Thorpe is a comics writer and novelist who began his career with the revamp of Captain Britain in Marvel Super-Heroes Monthly #377 in 1981, in collaboration with Paul Neary and artist Alan Davis. Thorpe wrote the strip until issue #386 before being succeeded by Alan Moore on the penultimate page of that installment (Thorpe's departure allegedly had to do with Marvel UK's refusal to run an overtly political script mirroring events in Northern Ireland without major revisions; the script apparently incensed Alan Davis so much that he almost resigned). Alan Davis has said that Thorpe was responsible for the world of the mainstream Marvel Comics universe being designated 'Earth-616', a designation that has since been accepted as 'official' within the Marvel multiverse, because 616 is according to some sources 'the number of the Beast' (reflecting Thorpe's less than complimentary views on superhero comics). His work on Captain Britain leaned heavily toward comedy and satire. From 1985-1990, Thorpe wrote 'Doc Chaos', which garnered a small but loyal following as both a comic series and a novella, and went on to write the novel Hybrids, published in 2007. He has also worked as a writer or editor for Marvel Comics, Vortex, Titan Books and Eclipse Enterprises.