Andy Mangels: Comics Writer, Mr. Oregon State Leather, and Gay-Media Advocate

Andy Mangels, born 2 December 1966, is an American science-fiction writer, comics editor, and DVD producer who has spent decades putting gay, lesbian, and leather lives onto pages that preferred them invisible. He is openly gay, a leather titleholder, and a bear-scene regular. Since 1988 he has run San Diego Comic-Con’s “Gays in Comics” panel — twenty-five years through 2012. He held Mr. Oregon State Leather 2004. The Pantheon of Leather gave him the Northwest Regional Award in 1995, 2005, and 2011. Leather and queer identity were not weekend costumes for him; they were civic work across a career.

His nonfiction is mostly media reference. Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters (Del Rey, 1995) hit the USA Today list, as did two Star Trek novels he later wrote with Michael A. Martin. Solo books include Beyond Mulder and Scully, From Scream To Dawson’s Creek, the 600-page Animation on DVD, Iron Man: Beneath The Armor, and Lou Scheimer: Creating The Filmation Generation with Scheimer. He wrote dozens of entries for Visible Ink’s superhero and supervillain encyclopedias.

The fiction that traveled farthest was franchise work. With Martin he wrote Star Trek: Section 31 – Rogue (June 2001), the first Star Trek property with gay lead characters. They also wrote Enterprise prose continuations such as Last Full Measure and The Good That Men Do, co-created the Titan crew and wrote its first two novels, and closed Roswell’s cliffhangers. He wrote for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and others, including the 2016 intercompany mini Wonder Woman ’77 Meets The Bionic Woman. An early openly gay superhero named Pride appeared in Gay Comix under his editorship.

He edited Gay Comix from 1991 to 1998, issues 14 through 25 plus a special. Under his run the book changed its name to Gay Comics — a step out of the underground-comix ghetto onto mainstream racks. He raised page and cover rates, added a reprint fee, enforced a 50/50 gender split among creators, and occasionally brought in straight marquee names such as George Pérez to lift sales. A story he commissioned from Alison Bechdel for Gay Comics #19 later grew into Fun Home; Bechdel thanked him in her 2016 Queers and Comics keynote. San Diego Comic-Con gave him the Inkpot Award in 2012.

His DVD work was mostly rescue and restoration of 1970s and 1980s children’s television — writing, directing, and often hosting extras for BCI Eclipse sets including He-Man, She-Ra, Flash Gordon, and nearly forty other titles. Digital Bits said hiring him turned BCI around. Best of He-Man won a 2005 TVDVD Award. He also wrote liner notes for Anchor Bay and other labels.

He founded Women of Wonder Day, which raised more than $136,000 for domestic-violence shelters over seven years. He is a founding member of PRISM Comics. As a Universal Life Church minister he officiated the Unity Wedding at Denver Comic Con in June 2016: ten couples, straight, gay, lesbian, and transgender. In 2019 he and his husband Donald Hood were forced out by a 113 percent rent increase; coverage helped push Oregon rent-control legislation, and Governor Kate Brown invited him to the bill signing. Bit parts include Leverage and Grimm. He works as a home-care worker for the State of Oregon and lives in Portland with Hood and their dog Lucy. For a BDSM and leather readership: Mr. Oregon State Leather 2004, three Pantheon awards, twenty-five years of Gays in Comics, the fundraising, Pride, and the first Star Trek book with gay leads — a working writer who treated the scene as civic work.