Andy Mangels (born December 2, 1966) is an American science fiction author who has written novels, comic books, and magazine articles, and produced DVD collections, mostly focusing on media in popular culture. As an openly gay man, he has been a longtime advocate for greater visibility of gay and lesbian characters in various media, especially comics, including the coordination and moderation of the annual "Gays in Comics" panel for Comic Con International since it was begun in 1988. He is the founder of an annual "Women of Wonder Day" event, which raised over $136,000 in funds for domestic violence shelters and related programs during its seven-year run. As of 2011 he has had three books on the USA Today "best-selling books" list.
Books
Mangels has written a number of references for popular science fiction and pop culture media. These include Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters (published by Del Rey in 1995), which appeared on the USA Today "best-selling books" list; Beyond Mulder and Scully: The Mysterious Characters of "The X-Files" (Citadel Press, 1997); Animation on DVD: The Ultimate Guide (Stone Bridge Press, 2003); From Scream To Dawson's Creek: The Phenomenal Career of Kevin Williamson (Renaissance Publishing, 2000); Iron Man: Beneath The Armor (Random House, 2008); and Lou Scheimer: Creating The Filmation Generation (TwoMorrows, 2012). He contributed to The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes (Visible Ink Press, 2004), and The SuperVillain Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic Book and Hollywood Masterminds, Megalomaniacs, and Menaces, (Visible Ink Press, 2006).
Much of Mangels' prose fiction has been related to media franchises begun in television. In collaboration with Michael A. Martin, he wrote a number of Star Trek novels, two of which appeared on the USA Today "best-selling books" list. One of them, Star Trek: Section 31 Rogue, was the first Star Trek property to feature gay lead characters. Mangels and Martin also co-wrote a series of novels serving as the official continuation of Star Trek: Enterprise following the television series' cancellation. These include Last Full Measure, The Good That Men Do, and Kobayashi Maru. They co-created the crew and wrote the first two novels of the Star Trek: Titan series. Together they wrote the conclusion for the events of the cult-hit television series Roswell (which had ended with a cliffhanger) in the novels Pursuit and Turnabout. Mangels and Martin also contributed a story to Tales of Zorro, edited by Richard Dean Starr and published by Moonstone Books in 2008.
Comic books
Since the 1990s Mangels has written comic book stories and text pieces for several major publishers. His work for DC Comics includes writing for Justice League Quarterly, Who's Who in the DC Universe, and Wonder Woman '77. His Marvel Comics work includes issues of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Unlimited, Mad Dog, Adventures of the X-Men, and Adventures of Spider-Man. For Dark Horse he wrote Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction, and he scripted a story in Wildstorm's Star Trek Special. Comics published by Image include the Bloodwulf mini-series, Badrock & Company, and Troll Halloween Special. For Innovation he scripted several tie-ins to the Child's Play, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Quantum Leap franchises. For WaRP he contributed scripts for Elfquest: Blood of Ten Chiefs. His Topps writing includes the comics adaptation of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday. He scripted Platinum Studio' graphic novel Super Larry, World's Toughest Man. For Microsoft he wrote the world's first interactive online comic series, RE-Man.
Mangels served as editor of the anthology Gay Comix from 1991 to 1998, for issues #14–25 (plus one "special"). He also contributed stories, including creating an early openly gay superhero named Pride. Under his editorship, the series changed its name to "Gay Comics" (symbolically becoming a part of the mainstream instead of underground comix scene), published multiple issues per year, raised page and cover payment rates and instituted a reprint fee, enforced a gender-parity of 50% male and 50% female creators rule, and even occasionally brought in popular heterosexual creators to bump sales, such as George Pérez and Sam Kieth. A story that Mangels' commissioned for Gay Comics #19 from Alison Bechdel would later be expanded upon for Bechdel's Fun Home graphic novel, for which Bechdel thanked him during her keynote speech at the 2016 "Queers and Comics" symposium at City University of New York.