Mills started his career as a sub-editor for
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, where he met Wagner. In 1971 both left to go
freelance, and were soon writing scripts for
IPC's girls' and humour comics. After D.C. Thomson launched
Warlord, a successful war-themed weekly, Mills was asked in 1975 to develop a rival title for IPC. Based in the girls' comics department to avoid the attention of the staff of the boys' department, Mills, along with Wagner and
Gerry Finley-Day, worked in secret to create
Battle Picture Weekly.
Battle's stories were more violent and its characters more working class than IPC's traditional fare, and it was an immediate hit. Having made the comic ready for launch, Mills resigned as editor. He would later write the celebrated
First World War series ''
Charley's War'', drawn by
Joe Colquhoun, for the title. After launching
Battle, Mills began developing a new boys' title,
Action, launched in 1976.
Action's mix of violence and anti-authoritarianism proved controversial and the title lasted less than a year before being withdrawn in the face of media protests. It was briefly revived in neutered form before being merged into
Battle. His next creation was the science fiction-themed weekly
2000 AD, launched in 1977. As with
Battle and
Action he developed most of the early series before handing them over to other writers. He took over the development of
Judge Dredd when creator John Wagner temporarily walked out, and wrote many of the early stories, establishing the character and his world, before Wagner returned. In 1978 IPC launched
Starlord, a short-lived companion title for
2000 AD. Mills contributed
Ro-Busters, a series about a robot disaster squad, which moved to
2000 AD when
Starlord was cancelled.
Ro-Busters was the beginning of a mini-universe of interrelated stories Mills was to create for
2000 AD, including
ABC Warriors and
Nemesis the Warlock. Artist
Kevin O'Neill was involved in the creation of all three. Another strand of his
2000 AD work was
Sláine, a
barbarian fantasy based on
Celtic mythology and
neo-paganism, which he co-created with his then wife
Angela Kincaid (with whom he also created the children's series of books,
The Butterfly Children). Mills also had a hand in IPC's line of
comics aimed at girls, such as
Chiller (a horror comic),
Misty (supernatural stories) and
Jinty (science fiction). In 1986 he edited the short-lived comic
Diceman, which featured characters from
2000 AD in political satire regarding U.S. President
Ronald Reagan. Mills wrote nearly every story. In 1988 he was involved in the launch of
Crisis, a politically aware
2000 AD spin-off aimed at older readers. For it he wrote
Third World War, drawn initially by
Carlos Ezquerra. The title lasted until 1991 and launched the careers of talents such as
Garth Ennis,
John Smith and
Sean Phillips. In 1991 Mills launched
Toxic!, an independent colour newsstand weekly comic with a violent, anarchic tone, perhaps as a reaction against the politically worthy
Crisis, and a
creator-owned ideal. Many of the stories were created by Mills and co-writer
Tony Skinner, including
Accident Man, an assassin who makes his hits look like accidents.
Toxic! lasted less than a year, but gave a start to talents such as
Duke Mighten and
Martin Emond. He has had little success in American comics, with the exception of
Metalzoic and
Marshal Law, published by
DC and
Epic comics respectively in the late 1980s, both drawn by O'Neill. Mills'
Toxic strips
Accident Man and
Brats Bizarre were reprinted as their own US-format titles (by
Dark Horse Comics and Epic, respectively) and Mills wrote
Punisher 2099 for Marvel,
Zombie World for Dark Horse, and
Death Race 2020 (reuniting Mills with Kevin O'Neill) for
Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics. In 1995, he broke into the French market, one of his life's goals, with
Sha, created with French artist
Olivier Ledroit. He continues to write
Sláine,
Bill Savage,
Black Siddha and
ABC Warriors for
2000 AD, and also the
Franco-Belgian comic Requiem Vampire Knight, with art by
Olivier Ledroit, and its spin-off
Claudia Chevalier Vampire, with art by
Franck Tacito. Two new series,
Greysuit, a super-powered government agent drawn by
John Higgins, and
Defoe, a 17th-century zombie hunter drawn by
Leigh Gallagher, began in
2000 AD prog 1540. Mills has formed Repeat Offenders with artist
Clint Langley and Jeremy Davis "to develop graphic novel concepts with big-screen potential" and the first project is a graphic novel called
American Reaper, serialised in the
Judge Dredd Megazine (2011–2015). It has been optioned by
Trudie Styler's
Xingu Films and Mills has written the screenplay. He has also written two
Doctor Who audio plays, "
Dead London" (2008) and "
The Scapegoat" (2009) for
Big Finish Productions, featuring the
Eighth Doctor and
Lucie Miller. The first audio play was released as the first part of the second season of the
Eighth Doctor Adventures and the second as part of the third season. In 2010 Mills adapted a story that had been started by him and Wagner for Doctor Who in the 1980s and was produced by Big Finish as "
The Song of Megaptera". In 2023, a 1980
Fourth Doctor comic he penned (with artist Dave Gibbons) for
Doctor Who Magazine was adapted into the
Fourteenth Doctor special "
The Star Beast." In 2017 he wrote, with Kevin O'Neill, and published two novels,
Serial Killer and
Goodnight, John-Boy, part of a planned series of four books. Also in that year, he published his memoirs,
Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000 AD and Judge Dredd: The Secret History in print and as an e-book. Mills also narrated the
audiobook version himself. (The title is the catchphrase of the villain in his series
Nemesis the Warlock.) In 2018 the film
Accident Man was released, based on his comic strip for
Toxic! In 2019 Mills announced that he would publish a new all-ages science fiction anthology comic called
Spacewarp, to be released in 2020, and that the artists would retain the copyright on their work. In 2021 he published another volume of memoirs with a focus on Slaine,
Kiss My Axe! Slaine the Warped Warrior: The Secret History. ==Bibliography==