Pat Mills

Pat Mills writes comics for more than 40 years.

Born March 7th 1949 (Ipswich, Suffolk), he began his career in the early seventies as an editor and writer for DC Thomson and soon IPC, working on girl’s and humour comics.

Then, Mills was asked to develop for IPC, the war-themed weekly magazine Battle Picture Weekly in 1975 (with newly met John Wagner with whom he will later co-create Judge Dredd), then Action Weekly in 1976, and Misty,va girl comics dear to his heart in 1978.

As a writer, his most prominent work at that time was Charley’s War, a First World War strip for Battle, drawn by Joe Colquhoun. Despite IPC’s repeated demands to have a more patriotic and less realistic story, Pat Mills succeeded in depicting real war heroes, in a well documented environment. The strip is still celebrated nowadays for its accuracy, and reprinted recently in deluxe format by Titan Books.

In 1977, he was asked again to develop a sci fi magazine, 2000AD, establishing most of the early series and characters before handing them over to the writers (including Judge Dredd, M.A.C.H. 1, Flesh and Invasion!).

In 1978, he developed the short-lived magazine Starlord where he created Ro-Busters, a robot disaster squad surfing on the Thunderbirds success (a puppet tv show).

Soon, he went back to being a freelance writer again, and had the opportunity to develop his own series (Nemesis The Warlock, or Sláine, co-created by his former wife Angie Kincaid) and universe (frequently referred as the Millsverse). For example, he brought back Ro-Busters to 2000 AD, and soon they became The A.B.C. Warriors, which had interrelated adventures with Nemesis, and Savage (the main character from the Invasion strips). For these series, he is more and more associated with a young artist, Kevin O’Neill.

In 1988, he was involved in the creation of a politically engaged magazine called Crisis, in which he scripted the Third World War universe, another mini universe, related to other of his characters series like Finn or Terrarists.

After a first attempt in the American comics market with Metalzoic in 1986, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill gained recognition in 1987 with their most famous antihero to date, Marshal Law (10 stories from 1987 to 2000).

Marshal Law had sufficient popularity to attract an English editor, Apocalypse Limited, who wanted to launch a new magazine, Toxic!, staring Mills and O'Neill hero hunter. Mills was first chief editor of Toxic! and during the magazine short existence, has the opportunity to develop numerous new characters (the most appealing being Accident Man, a killer for hire who’s specialized in faking his own victims death as accidents).

The following decade, besides his continuing contributions for 2000 AD or Marshal Law, he associated his name with beginner writer Tony Skinner for Marvel Comics 2099 line  (Ravage and Punisher 2099).

But since the end of the seventies, the attention of Pat Mills was driven towards the French comics market (2000 AD was partially inspired by Metal Hurlant). His first direct tryout, apart various translations of his previous works, was Shadowslayer, drawn by the late French artist Eric Larnoy. He made another noticeable attempt with Sha, a three part story drawing by Olivier Ledroit, about religion, sorcery and reincarnation.

His biggest success to date on the French market, is Requiem Vampire Knight (published in English language by Panini in UK, and Heavy Metal in the USA), also drawn by Olivier Ledroit. A spin-off, Claudia with artist Franck Tacito, has followed, as well as Broz with Adrian Smith for the same French publisher (Nickel Editions).

He currently continues to write Sláine, Savage, Flesh, and A.B.C. Warriors for 2000 AD, as well as Greysuit, and Defoe, a 17th century zombie hunter.

Outside the comic industry, his works include children books (The Butterfly Children with his former wife), Doctor Who audio plays and some role playing games.

He has formed Repeat Offenders with Jeremy Davis and artist Clint Langley (American Reaper), "to develop graphic novel concepts with big-screen potential" that could be transformed into filming screenplays.

Most of Pat Mills creations have in common a baroque universe, with explicit violence and sexuality, a strong political background, and very often a lots of humor. His themes usually turn around some of his main obsessions: religion through its most extreme faults (Pat Mills was raised in a catholic school, and didn’t particularly liked the experience), the perennial existence of the soul through the ages, and what’s really defines a true hero. So for example, it’s not astonishing to find various incarnation of Torquemada, the great inquisitor, in numerous stories (Nemesis, Sha, The Redeemer) or characters that reincarnates or resurrects throughout history (Sláine, Requiem Vampire Knight)