In eleventh grade, Russell made a splash as an ironic but wacky commentator on school events, beginning in the fall of 1998.  This year's strips, known collectively as the Russell Q Allen, Private Eye series, were ungodly huge, taking up the better part of a page in nearly every issue of the paper.   This space was, for the most part, used to good effect, with some really fun dialogue and a couple of brilliant artwork spots (in my humble opinion).

The Private Eye issues take quite a while to scan, as all but the first are larger than the area of my scanner, so they have to be assembled piecemeal. You can still see the seams in most cases, but it's better than nothing. Anyway.

Issue One: At this point I wasn't sure exactly how much space would be used, and it turned out the editorial staff blew up the comic to fill most of a newspaper page. This resulted in severe quality loss, so I began drawing the comics to that size for the later issues.

Issue Two: Here, the technical problem was with scanning. The caption at the top is absent - FYI, it reads "Previously, in Russel Q. Allen, Private Eye, our hero was investigating the agenda planner scandal when he got punched through a wall into a clandestine Board of Education meeting. He has been turned over to Chamblee's discipline staff for trial...."

Issue Three: The "lost issue"; this time the comic was too large for the editor to scan, so it went unprinted. Just as well, it's not exactly my favorite one, but it's here for completeness's sake. Consider it a rarity of the Russell catalogue, like the "butcher cover" of that Beatles record.

Issue Four (not scanned yet): The best Russell comic I've done, in my opinion. Tight, funny, and not Chamblee-specific. My English teacher that year had me autograph it so she could hang it on her classroom wall, and my counselor this year has indicated intent to have it framed.

Issue Five (not scanned yet): I like this one, it's clever, but the visuals are a little too sparse for my taste. Still, the weakened Russell is a neat visual, and a good contrast to his usual boundless energy.

Issue Six (not scanned yet): An extremely Chamblee-specific issue, this one tackles a number of issues that became suddenly a big deal that spring. FYI - Chamblee had a fire drill and a gas leak (or something like that), requiring evacuation procedures, shortly after a policy of chaining the doors shut was instituted. The potential hazards in a serious emergency were not lost on everyone...

Issue Seven: Another "lost issue." This was done for the 1999-2000 school year as my initial submission to reclaim my cartoonist post (with the new requirement that comics be four-panel and have a continuing plot, a nice paradox)...anyway, the ID tag issue became a moot point suddenly and this comic wasn't used.

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