X-Factor's Mark Russell Talks Rumpus Room - Creator Owned Art

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Mark Russell is an Eisner Award-winning writer behind some of the sharpest satirical books in comics, including AWA’s Not All Robots with Mike Dodato Jr. and Lee Loughridge, DC’s The Flinstones with Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, and Chris Chuckry, Marvel’s Fantastic Four: Life Story with Sean Izaakse and Nolan Woodard, and most recently, X-Factor with Robert Quinn and Jesus Aburtov as part of the X-Men’s newest From The Ashes Era.

I spoke with Russell about one of his favorite pieces of art from his collection from his Superman: Space Age collaborators, Mike and Laura Allred, as part of my Creator Owned Art series. Here’s what he said:

I think my favorite piece of original artwork in my collection is the cover for Rumpus Room #1 that Michael and Laura Allred did. I love it on so many levels. Not only because I have a personal connection to it having written Rumpus Room, but also because it's by two of my very favorite people and, like that weren't enough, it just looks AMAZING. Which is why I keep it in a place of great honor, mounted in my dining room, over the table so that whenever anyone comes over for dinner, they get this thing looking right back at them. 

In case you are wondering just what it is you are looking at, Rumpus Room tells the story of a tech billionaire who keeps people locked in his basement so he can, one by one, have them crushed and turned into skin cream. His prison is staffed by guards dressed in the surplus animal costumes from a defunct theme park. If you look closely, you can see a pair of sinister eyes gleaming at you from inside the cat's mouth. I like to see how long it takes someone looking at it to realize what's going on.

Here’s the cover from AWA’s Rumpus Room #1.

Thanks so much for Russell for taking the time to do this piece! X-Factor #5 from Marvel Comics arrives in comic book stores on December 11th, 2024.