science

Grass Green

Grass Green is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Grass Green rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Edward "Grass" Green (May 7, 1939 – August 5, 2002) was an African American cartoonist notable for being the first black participant in both the 1960s fan art movement and the 1970s underground comics movement. In the 1960s, Green's Harvey Kurtzman-like zany, action-packed, humorous comics parodies appeared in numerous fanzines.

Key takeaways

Grass Green belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Grass Green to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Grass Green from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Edward "Grass" Green (May 7, 1939 – August 5, 2002) was an African American cartoonist notable for being the first black participant in both the 1960s fan art movement and the 1970s underground comics movement. In the 1960s, Green's Harvey Kurtzman-like zany, action-packed, humorous comics parodies appeared in numerous fanzines. His "outrageous" 1970s and 1980s underground work used searing humor to expose America's racism and bigotry.

Biography Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Green was given the nickname "Grass" by his childhood friend Ronn Foss, with whom he later collaborated in editing two issues of the magazine Alter Ego. Beginning in 1964, Green's fan art appeared in such fanzines as Alter Ego, Star-Studded Comics, Fantasy Illustrated, The Buyer's Guide to Comics Fandom, Rocket's Blast Comicollector, Komix Illustrated, Super-Hero, and Masquerader. In 1967, Green broke into the professional comics world, collaborating with Roy Thomas on "The Shape" in Charlton Premiere #1. In the late 1960s, Green drew several more humorous strips for Charlton Comics, mostly in Go-Go Comics. (He also had work published in Bill Pearson's witzend.) He then became involved in the underground comix movement, where his work was published in Super Soul Comix (Kitchen Sink Press) and a Wildman and Rubberroy series. Super Soul Comix #1 (1972) sold 200,000 copies. In the 1990s, Green produced work for, among other places, Eros Comics.

Xal-Kor the Human Cat Green's Xal-Kor the Human Cat is a classic Golden Age-type superhero. Sent from the planet Felis by the Great White Cat, Xal-Kor fights the Rat People with his Dimension Belt, which enables him to change form from a common house cat to a hybrid man-cat form, and then into a fully human form. As a human, his alter ego is photojournalist Colin Chambers. Xal-Kor (who first appeared in 1964) was often voted the most popular fan creation in the fanzine Star-Studded Comics. The character returned several times over the years, most recently in May 2002 in a collection from TwoMorrows Publishing. Green was working on a new series of Xal-Kor adventures when he died in August 2002.

Holiday Out Green collaborated for many years with writer Michael Vance, including for four years on the comic book strip Holiday Out, featuring the characters Plastic Mam and Rok. Holiday Out stories were collected in Holiday Out #1-3, from Renegade Press, as well as books like Comico Primer (Comico), and Mangazine (Antarctic Press); much of it was re-released in June 2002 from Blue Moon Comics.

REGCo In the 1960s, Green founded the company REGCo, an acronym for his name, Richard Edward Green, which offered comic book artists and newspaper cartoonists ready-to-use layout art boards with borders and panels pre-drafted, delineated with non-repro blue ink. Green promoted this as a major time-saver for fellow artists, recognizing the time and tedium required for repeatedly laying out pages by hand. Although this was a practical idea, his business was only modestly successful, as many comic artists tend(ed) to be very particular about which type of art board they penciled and inked on. Around 1963, effectively as art objects, Green hand-drew and hand-colored ten issues of his REGCO Variety Showcase strip-zine (an amateur fanzine that contains comic book stories). No reproduction copies were made from these 'masters', so there is only one copy of each issue - each of the ten artifacts essentially 8 pages of original artwork stapled together. #1 is in the holdings of Archive West, and #9 (...Presents Twist-O) in the collection of fanzine archivist Emanuel Maris.

Personal life and death Green was also a musician, who as a young man appeared on Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour. On the Ted Mack show, Green won the talent contests with his singing, guitar-playing, and comedy performances, and, for a short time, he became a local celebrity, which offered him an opportunity to perform professionally at various clubs around the Fort Wayne area. Green died of lung cancer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on August 5, 2002. He was survived by his wife, Janice.

Awards Green won a 1966 Alley Award for Best Fan Comic Strip for "Xal-Kor."

Notes

References Obituary, The Comics Journal #247 (Oct. 2002)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Grass Green

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Grass Green claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Grass Green before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Grass Green ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Grass Green

In research: Grass Green appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Grass Green in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Grass Green is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1939 births, 2002 deaths, 20th-century African-American artists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Grass Green outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Grass Green in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Grass Green means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Grass Green out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Grass Green in simple terms?

Why does Grass Green matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Grass Green?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Grass Green.