Russ Wallace
Thirty-nine-year old Russ Wallace was born into a family of lobstermen in a small Iowa fishing village. Times were hard until the family realized that Iowa is landlocked and moved closer to the water where they soon prospered.
Young Russ was never satisfied with the fishing life. Instead, his idols were the great MAD Magazine artists Mort Drucker and Jack Davis, as well as a host of editorial cartoonists. He painstakingly studied their work while trying to develop a style of his own. Unfortunately, many of his idols objected to him showing up unannounced at their homes while jumping up to peer in the windows. Heartbroken and disillusioned, he turned to higher education.
Through the bulk of the Carter, Reagan and Bush administrations, Wallace studied at Marshall University and the University of Virginia, eventually emerging with a medical degree. This was puzzling, as Wallace had believed that he was enrolled in the Hotel Management program. This did explain, however, why the Hotel Management program had taken so long, and had involved asking people to disrobe.
Academically armed, he entered the practice of medicine and also did a great deal of medical illustration on the side. He practiced neurosurgery until he came to his senses and realized that medicine would always involve getting up really early and having to talk to people. With this epiphany he proceeded to illustrate a book written by his father, who then encouraged him to try his hand at editorial cartooning. He became the editorial cartoonist for the Charleston Gazette and was the runner-up to the prestigious Scripps-Howard National Press Award in his first year of cartooning. From this Natural Selection was born.
Natural Selection was what he had long envisioned; a single-panel, surreal, intelligent, gag cartoon that had the look and feel of an editorial cartoon. More than this, it was for Wallace, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream ... that of having a job he could do in his underwear and that didn't require bathing.
Russ Wallace resides in the Southeast. He has been joined for the last 15 years by a female human who "appears to be in charge." Later, two smaller humans and a dog showed up. They frequently ask to be driven places and eat a lot.
