Profiles in Black Cartooning: Richard “Grass” Green

In celebration of Black History Month, CBLDF has partnered with Black Nerd Problems to spotlight Black comics creators and cartoonists who made significant contributions to free expression. Visit CBLDF.org throughout the month of February to learn more! Black History Month has become a multifaceted parade of Black greatness in all of my social media feeds — first Black man to do this; first Black woman to do that. This is our community stepping in to share a history most of us didn’t learn in school, and highlighting trailblazers who brought us to the multicultural world developing around us. In that spirit, I approached learning more about Richard Eugene “Grass” Green — a pioneering fan and cartoonist whose work started in the 1960s and continued until his death in 2002. To understand Green’s work, it helps to know about the Comics Code Authority and its impact on comic book publishing in the 1950s and 60s. As we know, the 1950s was a scary time in the US of A. The Great War was over. McCarthyism was ruining the lives of white artists and creators. Black folk were getting fed up and heading for the explosion of the Civil Rights Movement. There was a widespread concern among respectable people about the corrupting influences of comics on youth — particularly comics that featured horror, crime, and (gasp) sex. In September 1954, in an attempt to head off official censorship from the government, the leading comics publishers created their own governing body — The Comics Mag…