Mike Russell is a writer and cartoonist who currently lives in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. 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 U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

.'' 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 research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

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 Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. and operating primarily in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of 2019, the company owns 25 newspapers and employs 200 people. His ...

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 regul ...

Milwaukie, Oregon Milwaukie is a city mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States; a very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County. The population was 20,291 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1847 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city ...

. 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 ''Willame ...

'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. 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 multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' 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 men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

, a

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

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 American company Dark Horse Comics from 1986. Their first published series, it was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, r ...

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

Hellboy Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...

, 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