Mark Russell (born 1971) is an American author and

comic book writer A script is a document describing the narrative and dialogue of a comic book in detail. It is the comic book equivalent of a television program teleplay or a film screenplay. In comics, a script may be preceded by a plot outline, and is almost al ...

Books

Russell is the author of ''God Is Disappointed in You'' (

Top Shelf Productions Top Shelf Productions is an American publishing company founded in 1997, originally owned and operated by Chris Staros and Brett Warnock with a small staff. Currently an imprint of IDW Publishing, Top Shelf is based in Marietta, Georgia. Top Sh ...

, 2013), a modern retelling of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

with

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

s by ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

Shannon Wheeler Shannon Wheeler is an American cartoonist, best known as a cartoonist for ''The New Yorker'' and for creating the satire, satirical superhero Too Much Coffee Man. Early life Shannon Wheeler grew up in Berkeley, California, brought up by his moth ...

. He also wrote ''Apocrypha Now'', a book about non-canonical Christian and Jewish texts.

Comics

In 2015, Russell wrote a reboot of the 1973–74 comic '' Prez'' (Issues 1–6,

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

), drawn by Ben Caldwell, which features a teenage president of the United States. He wrote ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions, which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the R ...

'' comic book series for DC Comics, with art by

Steve Pugh Steve Pugh ( ; born 24 March 1966) is a British comic book artist who has worked for American and British comic producers including DC Comics, DC, Marvel Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse and ''2000 AD (comic), 2000 AD''. He broke ...

. ''The Flintstones'' was nominated for two

Eisner Awards The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

: Best Limited Series and Best Humor Publication and a

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

for Book of the Year. Russell's '' Exit, Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles'', drawn by Mike Feehan, presented the

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

character Snagglepuss as a gay

southern Gothic Southern Gothic is an artistic subgenre of Gothic fiction, fiction, Popular music, music, Gothic film, film, theatre, and television that are heavily influenced by Gothic fiction, Gothic elements and the Southern United States, American South. ...

playwright in 1950s New York and was published by DC Comics in 2018. Exit, Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles received the 2019

GLAAD Award The GLAAD Media Award is a US accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding portrayals of LGBTQ people and the issues that affect their lives. In addition to film and television, the Awards ...

for Outstanding Comic. The series was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, with Russell also being nominated for Best Writer. In February 2019, DC's Wonder Comics line, curated by

Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an Americans, American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime fiction, crime and hardboiled, noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero fiction, superhero work. While a ...

, published Russell's ''The Wonder Twins'' with artist Stephen Byrne. It was nominated for a 2020

Ringo Awards The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Ringo Awards, are prizes given for achievement in comic books. They are named in honor of artist Mike Wieringo and they were founded by the Reisterstown, Maryland–based C ...

for Best Humor Comic. Also in 2019, Russell's comic, ''

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

,'' with artist

Richard Pace Richard Pace (c. 148228 June 1536) was an English clergyman and diplomat of the Tudor period. Life He was born in Hampshire and educated at Winchester College under Thomas Langton. He attended the universities of Padua and Oxford. In 1509, ...

was published by

Ahoy Comics Ahoy Comics is an American comic book publisher. It was founded in 2018 by publisher Hart Seely, editors Tom Peyer and Stuart Moore, and chief creative officer Frank Cammuso. At its launch, Ahoy sought to distinguish itself from other comics publ ...

after initially being dropped by DC and

Vertigo Comics DC Vertigo, also known as Vertigo Comics or simply Vertigo, is an Imprint (trade name), imprint of the American comic book publisher DC Comics. Vertigo publishes comics with adult comics, adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and ...

. The first volume of ''

'', with an introduction by

Patton Oswalt Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom ''The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–2023) as adult ...

, was published in March 2020. Russell worked with Flintstones artist

on ''Billionaire Island''. In 2021, Russell wrote '' Fantastic Four: Life Story'' for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

, retelling the story of Marvel's first family decade by decade. He also released ''One-Star Squadron'', drawn by Steve Lieber, about superheroes working in the marketplace, and ''Not All Robots'' with artist

Mike Deodato Deodato Taumaturgo Borges Filho, better known by his pen name Mike Deodato ( ; born May 23, 1963), is a Brazilian comic book artist. Early life Mike Deodato was born on May 23, 1963, in Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil. He is the son of comic ar ...

, which won the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication and was nominated for Best New Series. In 2022, Russell released ''Superman: Space Age'' (DC Comics) with Mike Allred, which was nominated for the 2023 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, and ''Traveling to Mars'' (Ablaze), nominated for the 2023 Eisner Award for Best New Series. Russell was nominated for the 2023 Eisner Award for Best Writer. ''Cereal'', a horror-comedy series featuring characters based on cereal advertising monsters, was published by AHOY Comics in October 2023. In 2024, Russell and Mike Allred released '' Batman: Dark Age'', serving a follow-up to ''Superman: Space Age''. Russell's other comics include a ''

Red Sonja Red Sonja is a sword-and-sorcery character created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially inspired by Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino. A warrior from the Hyborian Age of Ear ...

'' series (

Dynamite Comics Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded in 2004 by Nick Barrucci in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, known for publishing comic book adaptations of licensed feature film properties, such as ''Army of Darkness'', '' Terminator ...

), ''Judge Dredd: Under Siege'' (IDW, 2018), ''The Lone Ranger: The Devil's Rope'' (Dynamite, 2018), ''Superman vs. Imperious Lex'' (DC, 2021), ''Incal: Psychoverse'' (Humanoids, 2022), ''One-Star Squadron'' (DC, 2022), ''Cereal'' (AHOY, 2023), ''Rumpus Room'' (AWA, 2023), ''Traveling to Mars'' (Ablaze, 2023), and ''Deadbox'' (Vault, 2024).

Miscellaneous

In 2019, on

Storytellers Telling Stories ''Storytellers Telling Stories'' is an episodic podcast created and hosted by writer and showrunner Jude Brewer Jude Brewer is an American writer, producer, actor, and podcast host, best known for creating and hosting '' Storybound'' and '' ...

with Jude Brewer, Russell discussed his early work on

Public Access Television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specia ...

. In November 2020, he discussed ''Billionaire Island'' and ''Second Coming'' on Indie Comics Spotlight with Tony Farina and Mike Burton on the Comics in Motion podcast. On September 16, 2021, Russell appeared on the

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel "Lost'n Comics" to discuss his career. In 2023, he published "Bunkbed Mishaps", a book of his original cartoons. In 2024, Russell appeared on ''The Comics Cube'', Vladimir Popov's ''The Questionnaire'' Season 2, and ''Collectors Confessions'' on YouTube.

References

External links

*
Mark Russell at ''Nailed Magazine''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Mark 1971 births American writers DC Comics people Living people Marvel Comics writers