cup just as World War II broke out. Russell tried to enlist in the Royal Australian Air Force, unsuccessfully. When Stan Cross left Smith's in 1940 Russell succeeded him as art editor and also took over drawing Cross's comic strips, including You and Me, which he renamed Mr and Mrs Pott, and from 1950, The Potts. Through the war years Russell was responsible for two satirical strips, Adolf, Herman and Musso (which made fun of Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring and Benito Mussolini) and Schmit der Sphy. He won 1st prize in the Voluntary Services section in the National Gallery of Victoria's 1945 "Australia at War" exhibition. Russell branched out into comic books during the 1940s when import restrictions gave Australian comics a lion's share of the market. At the beginning of 1947, Jim and his older brother, Dan, began their own publishing company, All-Australian Comics. The lead title of the company was Tex Morton's Wild West Comics, starring the popular country music singer. Like many Australian comics of the time, it was a copy of American material, in this case, featuring cowboy actors such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Tex Morton was always featured in a lead-off story along with his mates Jacky, Shorty and Slim, drawn by Dan Russell. For the first two years companion features were Keith Chatto's Bunny Allen, Les Dixon's Alfie the Jackaroo and a series of bush yarns by Jack Hemming. Early in 1949 they added another title, Kanga's K.O. Comics, with the lead strip drawn by Russell, who used the pseudonym 'Mick Newton'. Russell also used the pseudonym on a revised version of Wanda Dare in Tex Morton Comics (the earlier version of Wanda Dare, a lady reporter, having previously been drawn by Dan). In the middle of 1950 All-Australian Comics ran into financial difficulties due to rising production costs and the company folded by the end of the year. Russell resigned from Smith's Weekly after a dispute with the new editor, and not long after, in October 1950, Smith's Weekly folded. By a complex financial arrangement, the Melbourne Herald had acquired copyright to The Potts, and he resumed drawing the strip in its new role as a daily Russell also wrote film reviews and other articles, was a radio and television personality, a publisher of dancing and music magazines and ran two travel agencies. In 1924, Russell was one of the founders