Mark Russell

Mark Russell (born 1971) is an American author, cartoonist, and comic book writer.

Russell is the author of God Is Disappointed in You (Top Shelf Productions, 2013), a modern re-telling of the Bible (with cartoons by New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler) as well as a follow up book about non-canonical Christian and Jewish texts called Apocrypha Now (Top Shelf Productions/IDW, 2016).

In 2015, Russell made his debut in comics with his critically acclaimed reboot of the 1973-74 comic Prez (Issues 1-6, DC Comics), drawn by Ben Caldwell, in which a teenager is elected and serves as President of the United States. Following Prez, Russell was hired to write The Flintstones comic book series for DC Comics, drawn by Steve Pugh. The Flintstones was nominated for two Eisner Awards, including Best Limited Series and Best Humor Publication, as well as being nominated for a Harvey Award for Book of the Year. In 2018, DC Comics published Russell's comic Exit, Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, which reinvented the titular Hanna Barbera character as a gay southern gothic playwright living in 1950s New York. Exit Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles won the 2019 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Comic. The series was also nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series and Russell was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Writer. February, 2019 saw the publication of Russell's The Wonder Twins with artist Stephen Byrne as part of DC's new Wonder Comics line, curated by Brian Michael Bendis. 2019 also saw the publication of Russell's comic Second Coming by AHOY Comics. Originally slated to be published by DC/Vertigo, the comic was dropped by the label due to the religious and controversial subject matter, only to be later picked up and published by AHOY. Volume I of Second Coming will be published in March, 2020, featuring an Introduction by Patton Oswalt. Russell is currently writing "Killing Red Sonja", the spin-off of his Red Sonja series for Dynamite Comics

Other comic book titles written by Mark Russell include Judge Dredd: Under Siege (IDW, 2018), The Lone Ranger: The Devil's Rope (Dynamite, 2018), and Red Sonja (Dynamite, 2019).

Mark Russell was born in Springfield, Oregon and currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and family.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Russell self-published his stories and cartoons in a zine called The Penny Dreadful.

In 2019, Russell appeared on an episode of Storytellers Telling Stories with Jude Brewer, recounting his early days on Public Access Television.