Mike Russell is a writer and cartoonist who currently lives in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. His best known work, ''CulturePulp'' appeared regularly in ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

.'' In addition to writing articles for the publication, his work has appeared nationally in a variety of mediums including: comic books, newspapers, posters, college lectures and magazines.

Career

Russell is a graduate of the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

where he worked for '' The Oregon Voice'', a campus publication. He majored in Magazine Journalism and later began a career in media at '' The Clackamas Review'', a

Pamplin Media Group The Pamplin Media Group (PMG) is a media conglomerate owned by Carpenter Media Group and operating primarily in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. founded the company in 2001 and sold it to Carpe ...

community paper Community paper is a term used by publishers, advertisers and readers to describe a range of publications that share a common service to their local community and commerce. Their predominant medium being newsprint, often free and published at regu ...

Milwaukie, Oregon Milwaukie is a city mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, Clackamas County, Oregon, United States; a very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County, Oregon, Multnomah County. The population was 21,119 at the 2020 United States Census, ...

. In early 2004, he joined ''The Oregonian'' as a freelancer. The first ''CulturePulp'' strip appeared in the paper in March 2004, followed by another series titled "Mr. Do and Mr. Don't." Since then, he has contributed articles and comics to ''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history '' ...

'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

''. In addition to his work as a cartoonist, Russell penned movie and book reviews, celebrity interviews and other articles for ''The Oregonian.'' Russell is also the author of the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' comic ''Jaxon's 11'' and edits ''Serenity Tales,'' a collection of comics that focuses on the popular cult science fiction program ''

Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

''. In 2004, Russell created a poster for the Timbers Army, a fan club that follows the

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Timbers have p ...

, a

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

team in Portland. In December 2010, he released ''Cort and Fatboy and the Secret of the Buried Unicorns,'' an illustrated adventure starring Cort Webber and Bobby Roberts, the hosts of Cort and Fatboy, a former radio show in Portland. Russell regularly appeared on the show as a weekly co-host beginning in 2006. In early 2011, Russell created '' The Sabertooth Vampire.'' The comic strips were later assembled into a print collection. A follow-up, titled ''The Sabertooth Vampire Unleashed,'' was released in October 2011. Over the course of 2012, several issues of ''

Dark Horse Presents ''Dark Horse Presents'' was a comic book published by Dark Horse Comics from 1986 in comics, 1986. Their first published series, it was their flagship title until its September 2000 in comics, 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was publishe ...

'' included ''Sabertooth Vampire'' comics, one of which featured an encounter between the titular character and

Hellboy Hellboy is a superhero created by Mike Mignola and appearing in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots ...

, the popular comic book hero.

Personal life

Russell was adopted as a child and wrote about his experiences for a presentation/essay titled "The Bastard Spawn Speaks."

References

External links

CulturePulp

Serenity Tales

CortandFatboy.com

The Sabertooth Vampire

An interview with Mike Russell
on ''Notebook on Cities and Culture'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Mike Journalists from Portland, Oregon Living people University of Oregon alumni Year of birth missing (living people) The Oregonian people