Inside Mark Russell's RUMPUS ROOM

Writer Mark Russell took San Diego Comic-Con attendees this weekend inside his new guide Rumpus Room, which imagines a technocrat billionaire with a horrible pores and skin situation that requires a topical cream made, um, very unethically by uh…effectively, primarily by harvesting the poor.

Rumpus Room — which is revealed by AWA Studios and has a primary difficulty due out September 20 (FOC August 27) — is illustrated by Ramon Rosanas with covers by Tony Harris. And whereas the rollout of the guide was essentially the most well timed facet of the panel, there was additionally a considerate dialogue of Russell’s previous guide with AWA, Not All Robots, in addition to his profession as an entire. In reality, I feel this panel — moderated by Popverse’s Graeme McMillan with AWA Chief Creative Officer Axel Alonso — had extra (and higher) questions than 99 p.c of comics panels I’ve attended (we’ll get to these).

But first, extra on Rumpus Room. Russell mentioned the guide is a satire, impressed by the politics of 2023, a time during which many appear to be comfy with arguing that some teams are much less human and billionaires have mainly thrown everybody else right into a (rumpus) room to struggle for survival.

You can discover some visible property from the brand new guide under, together with a variant cowl drawn (and signed) by Russell himself:

So there’s the artwork and the brand new stuff, however like I mentioned, this panel additionally had a sturdy Q&A and a pleasant dialogue between Russell and Alonso. I’ve pulled out some highlights that I famous under:

Russell was having a tough time getting Not All Robots (an eventual Eisner winner for finest humor comedian) made, with publishers listening to the pitch — a robotic dystopian parable for poisonous masculinity — after which asking what else he had. Until AWA got here alongside.
Russell initially puzzled how effectively Not All Robots artist Mike Deodato Jr. would match with the guide, however thinks his work makes it even funnier by taking part in the visuals comparatively straight.
Alonso mentioned he appreciated the guide as a result of it was a unique form of robotic takeover story, one during which the robots are victors however remorse it.
Russell has a prose undertaking forthcoming that includes the Brothers Grimm fairytales.
The “primordial influences” for Russell’s work are MAD Magazine and Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.
Russell was so satisfied that (now completely beloved) The Flintstones would finish his comics profession, that he tried to place the whole lot he needed to say in that one comedian.
Finally, quoting an viewers query, Russell mentioned it might be becoming if his enterprise card learn “Mark Russell, A New Voice in Frustration.”