Groovy Grass

Okay. I promised more Grass Green and those early fanzine parody strips, and Sunday Funnies seems like a fair place to drop them. Seeing Roy Thomas's  Bestest League Of America comics inspired Grass and ignited his passion for comics.
So, only 3 issues after Bestest League wrapped up in Alter Ego, Da Frantic Four* appeared -

Not long after, over at Komix Illustrated...

It didn't stop after Grass turned pro, either. He got to draw his version of the Bestest League of America and have a Marvelous time, too, for Go-Go Comics -

Damn shame we lost Green just as the world was beginning to rediscover him in this century.

art by Grass Green from Alter Ego #6, Komix Ilustrated #13, and Go-Go Comics #6 (1963, 1965, 1967)

===
*(Da Frantic Four was actually inspired by The Frantic Four, a single panel toon by Ronn Foss that ran in The Comicollector #8:

 )

Bestest Beginnings

Finally!
I'm missing the first part, but knew i'd seen it in one of the archives to which i have access. But small and arcane university archives can be torurous to search at times. We're talking internet access that was established before the Web took over the Internet. One had best be familiar with FTP and willing to digitally walk through obtuse data mazes laid out when directory names were limited to eight characters.
But at last, chapter one is here and we may proceed...

Way back at the dawn of the Groovy Age there was a young guy who loved comics.
Actually, there were a lot of guys like that at the time, but we're talking about one in particular who would go on to be one of the writers with the biggest impact of the decades to follow. But back in 1961 he didn't have anyone to draw his stories when he decided to put out his own fanzine.

That didn't stop him. And, Lo - A League Was Born....

Alter Ego was launched, as many of you already know, by Roy Thomas.  CORRECTION/EDIT: Alter Ego was launched, as many of you already know, by Jerry Bails, of Jerry Bails' Collector's Guide fame, with the aid of Roy Thomas.
It went on to become such a legendary fanzine that it was revived as a professional publication in this century by Two Morrows. But back in that first issue, Roy was doing it all  drawing it by himself:

A note before we continue. Way back in those days before common access to Xerox copy machines, we had to use mimeograph technology for duplication. This was rather crude, involving preparing your pages backwards, so the master pages had a carbon sheet affixed to the back to create a reverse image of whatever was typed, or drawn, on the front side. That reversed image was then reversed again during duplication and was prone to fairly rapid replicant fading. For large runs, multiple masters often needed to be prepared. Not a terrible thing for a typed page of text, perhaps, but pretty limited for hand drawn artwork.

Also, the pages printed purple. I considered removing the colour data to allow cleaner preparation of these pages, but decided that the purple look was better suited to this post. I could be wrong, but this is what you get for now -

Yep. Even way back then, Roy was already working to bring back some of those Golden Age greats. Eventually that became something of his trademark at DC, while over at Marvel he's perhaps best known for the epic Kree/Skrull war.

Two issues later...

Now we're talking Groovy! Grass Green drawing Roy Thomas parody of 1963 era FF?
And an actual printer? Distribution must be growing.

Stay tuned for the return of Grass Green!

pages & covers by Roy Thomas for Alter Ego #s 1, 2 & 3 (1961)

Blue Grass (sans music)

It seems like at least half of the stories drawn by Grass Green featured nudity and sex, making him a natural candidate for this week's edition of

As is now standard policy, this post is being published on The Other Voice Of ODD!, the 'back room' for this blog. The text is posted here for you to be able to decide if you wish to go view the artwork.
Link to post. 

Text Of Post:

Something i can relate to about Green was his insistence on creating material that was fun for him, prioritizing his personal enjoyment of the art over potential career options. For years, Dennis Kitchen tried to get him to do stories focusing on social and political themes so Green's work would fit better into Kitchen Sink's comic line-up. Perhaps we were left with a diminished legacy when Richard Green died so young, but hopefully he enjoyed his time in this world more for following his own desires. And he did gain recognition for his work in the industry even if he wasn't widely known. Even publications like Heavy Metal magazine drew upon his talents, though you likely might not have noticed at the time -


In the early 90s, Grass produced four issues of Horny Comix & Stories for Rip Off Press-



It featured pretty much whatever Green felt like creating, including his female 'Tarzan' strip, Gina Of The Jungle...



...which ended with one of the all-time great shock-takes in comics:



I love that face - i may make a t-shirt based on it.

Here's a quick peek at some of what to expect in Horny C&S -



 Warla is one of Grass Green's recurring characters. Let's stop peeking at pages and look at some full stories, starting with Warla's adventure from the second issue of Bizarre Sex -



Another of Green's regular characters was Hobo Hal. Hal was your typical down-n-out guy living rough on the road, with one small exception. Everyone wanted to "ride the hobo express", no matter where he went. You can imagine what happens when he wanders into somebody else's adult comic, like when he showed up Cherry Jubilee (because, apparently, Poptart was already taken)...



That's the typical ending to a Hobo Hall tale - run, Hal, run!
This story, from Grass Green's Good Jive #1 is probably the best summary of Hal's experiences...



Seriously. Everybody wanted to ride.



Our final tale today comes from Bizarre Sex #1 -



Oddly enough, Grass re-used this story almost 20 years later, changing from Incest to Sinnin' the title to match the title of the comic in which it appeared:



Condolences to the fannyless among you who took that bet.

everything by Grass Green for Bizarre Sex #s 1&2, Cherry's Jubilee #3, Good Jive #s 1&2, and Horny Stories & Comix #s 1,2&3 (1971, 1972, 1991, 1993)

More Far Out Fairy Tales

Let us continue with another Far Out Fairy Tale drawn by Grass Green, this time with scripting by Steve Skeates - another creator of whom i'm fond. While definitely Far Out, i think these fairy tales may have been Fractured as well.
And, perhaps, reassembled with some of the pieces mixed...

Groovy Age oddness by Steve Skeates & Grass Green for Abott & Costello #s 5&6 (1968, 1969)

Hey, Abbott! Tell Me A Story

When Charlton picked up the rights to do an Abbott & Costello comic in the 60s, they decided to capitalize on another blip on the cultural radar for a back-up feature. Fractured Fairy Tales was a popular feature on Jay Ward's Rocky & Bullwinkle show, and they tapped Grass Green to draw a series of Far Out Fairy Tales along with writer Sergious O'Shaugnessy, with whom he was partnered in this morning's initial comic strip.

The first installment:

No worries - next issue follows...

words & pictures by Sergious O'Shaugnessy and Grass Green for Abbott & Costello #s 1&2 (1968)