Mills worked in the gay press, where he became a beloved cartoonist, and he later became involved in social activism. In the earlier part of the 1980s, Mills worked in the subscriptions department of
In Touch for Men, an adult magazine company aimed at gay men. John Calendo, the magazine's editor and friend of Mills, encouraged the artist to develop a regular comic strip in the magazine. The two intended for the strip to add variety to the regularly scheduled comic content, to which Mills created
Poppers. The strip's title refers to "
poppers",
alkyl nitrites which were commonly used recreationally in the gay community. Mills began writing the series in 1982 and by the mid 1980s a translated edition of the strip was published in
Gai Pied Hebdo, a French-language gay magazine, and in the Japanese magazine
Barazoku. Reprints of the strip also appeared sporadically in
Gay Comix under the editorship of
Howard Cruse,
Robert Triptow, and
Andy Mangels. The ninth issue of
Gay Comix was focused solely on Mills's
Poppers strips.
Poppers was lauded for having complex characters who were more than gay stereotypes.
Poppers focused on Billy, a
West Hollywood muscleboy, and his sidekick Yves (based on Mills), a big-hearted nebbish who offered good advice and caution (usually unheeded) for his glamorous friend. Yves always went along for the ride with Billy, commenting on the action, a function he took over from a witty
crab louse that lived on Billy's pubic hair in the first few strips. Mills was also a frequent cartoonist to the
Meatmen gay male comics series in the beginning of its run and wrote an eight-page history of gays in comics for the first
Meatmen anthology. When Mills moved to the classifieds department of
Advocate Men,
Poppers also moved to
Advocate Men and was published sporadically. By the beginning of the 1990s Mills' health was deteriorating, as he developed complications associated with
HIV infection, and in his final few years he worked less and less. He did, however, attend
ACT UP demonstrations in Los Angeles and design posters for the offshoot organization
Queer Nation, concerned with gay visibility. After his death, a March 1993 ACT UP protest at
Amgen Corporation was dedicated to Richard Iosty and Mills, both active ACT UP LA members who had recently died. Though overshadowed by contemporaries such as
Tim Barela and
Howard Cruse, both of whom also worked with continuing characters in comic strip format, scholars have stated that Mills made a substantial contribution to gay cartooning. In particular, the "
Chelsea Boys" strip by
Glen Hanson and
Allan Neuwirth is influenced by Mills. == AIDS themes ==