Alan Mitchell (comics)

Alan Mitchell
Nationality	British
Area(s)	Writer
Notable works	Third World War

Alan Mitchell (born 1960 in East London, England) is a writer.

Biography

In 1988 Mitchell began writing in partnership with Pat Mills, who met the writer while Mitchell was working as a shop manager for Acme Comics in Coldharbour Lane in Brixton, South London. Mills was looking for a black writer to help him create a nightmare urban world based in the UK. This would complement the one that Mills had developed with his main character Eve and her friends in Central America with a focus on corporate exploitation by the multinationals in the third world. It was the beginning of a writing partnership that would last until 2004.

In Crisis, the revolutionary political comic from Fleetway, Mitchell worked on Books 2 and 3 of the controversial story, Third World War. This was a complex and hard hitting narrative that covered issues including matriarchy, police racism, no-go areas, private police forces, class war, and black resistance (Newsinger, 1999). The stories anticipated the surveillance society and Macpherson by at least a decade. Mitchell also had the opportunity of writing an Amnesty International story "Prisoner of Justice" with Glenn Fabry as artist. Amongst the most memorable Third World War' stories were "Liat’s Law" parts 1&2 with artist Duncan Fegredo, and "The Black Man’s Burden". This classic quartet of stories, with John Hicklenton's art, introduced the character of the villainous Chief Inspector Ryan, the embodiment of racism within the police force (Newsinger, 1999). The tales provided the platform that Mills had framed for Mitchell to express his political perspective and cultural concerns of the time. The Black African Defence Squad (BADS), and the mothers of Azania, Sonnyboy and Charles Shebego amongst a number of other characters, served to develop a complex and arresting depiction of black African urban culture in comics. Sean Phillips was the other major artist who collaborated on a number of framing episodes. (Newsinger, 1999)

Mitchell went on to partner with Pat Mills on Toxic! on which he co wrote Coffin for that publication. He also worked for the well-regarded black community magazine The Alarm through the mid 90’s, writing the comic strip The Scrolls of Imhotep amongst other pieces.

Mitchell has gone on to write several horror shorts for various American publishers chiefly Lament for Baal with artist Kane: 1327 for Raw Media Magazine. He has also worked on a number of uncredited stories with Pat Mills including, ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd in 2000 AD, and Star Wars for Dark Horse. Finally he partnered Mills in the first ABC Warriors novel The Medusa War for Black Library based on elements changed or removed from the scripts. According to Mills:

Parts [of the novel] are dramatisations of the comic strip. Notably the Biohazard troopers because they originally had excellent funky black dialogue contributed by my black co-writer on the novel, Alan Mitchell. This was altered at the time by 2000AD editorial without my knowledge and in an inappropriate and uncool way. It made my toes curl it was so wrong. So I thought it was important to put it back the way it should be. I think the text version is much better.

Mitchell has just completed the first episode of RaptorZ a new internet comic with Glenn Fabry as artist for Buzz comic that will be appearing in the summer 2009. He is also working with the artist Kane: 1327 on Fierce, a horror anthology due for completion winter 2009.

Bibliography

Comics

• Third World War (with co-author Pat Mills):
  • Book II:
    • "Here be dragons" (with art by Angela Kincaid (1) and John Hicklenton (2), in Crisis #15-16, 1989)
    • "Back in Babylon" (with art by Carlos Ezquerra, in Crisis #17, 1989)
    • Untitled (with art by Carlos Ezquerra, in Crisis #18, 1989)
    • "Liats law" (with art by Duncan Fegredo, in Crisis #19, 1989)
    • "All about Eve" (with art by Carlos Ezquerra, in Crisis #20-21, 1989)
    • "Symphony of splintered wood" (with art by Sean Phillips, in Crisis #22-23, 1989)
    • "Remembering Zion" (with art by Sean Phillips, in Crisis #24, 1989)
    • "The world according to Ryan" (with art by John Hicklenton, in Crisis #25, 1989)
    • "Liats law II" (with art by Duncan Fegredo, in Crisis #26, 1989)
    • "Book of Babylon" (with art by Sean Phillips, in Crisis #27, 1989)
    • "The Dark other" (with art by John Hicklenton, in Crisis #29, 1989)
    • "The rhythm of resistance" (with art by John Hicklenton, in Crisis #30, 1989)
    • "The calling" (with art by Sean Phillips, in Crisis #31, 1989)
    • "The man with the child in his eyes" (with art by Sean Phillips, in Crisis #33-34, 1989)
    • "Black man's burden" (with art by John Hicklenton, in Crisis #35, 1990)
    • "Ivan's story: Why me?" (with art by Steve Pugh, in Crisis, #36, 1990)
  • Book III:
    • "Killing Me Softly" (with art by Glyn Dillon, in Crisis, #43-44, 1990)
    • "Anchorman" (with art by Steve Pugh, in Crisis, #50, 1990)

• "Prisoner of Justice" (with Glen Fabry, in Crisis #52, 1990)

• Coffin (with co-author Pat Mills and art by Morak Oguntade, in Toxic! #13-23, June-August 1991)

Novels

• ABC Warriors: The Medusa War (with co-author Pat Mills, Black Library, 2004, ISBN 1844161099)

References

• Alan Mitchell at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Alan Mitchell at Barney