In 1926 the head artist of Fox Films offered to tutor Russell in the basics of art, for which he paid £100 and worked unpaid there for two years.

Russell briefly went to the Referee as sports caricaturist until he rejoined Smith's Weekly and by 1933 was Australia's youngest daily cartoonist,[8] In 1939 he temporarily abandoned cartooning and accompanied the Australian Davis Cup team to the United States as a tennis writer.

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.

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.

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.

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.