The character became moderately popular in the comics after first appearing in December 1940 in the back pages of Crestwood Publications’ PRIZE COMICS #7, and would run for an uneven twenty plus issues. Spark Publications would pick up the hero in 1944 and publish eight issues of The Green Lama in his own comic before it was finally cancelled in 1946. As the Golden Age began to fade, Crossen left comics to concentrate on his fiction. Before his early demise in the mid-1960's, he would achieve a modest degree of success with the paperback popularity of his P.I. Milo March (said detective has a Yahoo Group dedicated to him). Unlike most of his peers, March was not one of those down and dirty dicks drowning in cynicism. His upbeat attitude and abundance of 'cheekiness' set him apart from his contemporaries.

The Green Lama was likewise unique in a number of areas, the most obvious being his religion: He was the only practicing Buddhist in the comics. In fact, his Buddhism was the source of his powers. Another fascinating aspect of the charactor (and of Crossen's later work) was his ultra-liberalism, which manifested in an untypical (for the times) emphasis on civil rights and race relations.

 

Legendary artist Emanuel 'Mac' Raboy's first employer was Uncle Sam, for whom he created art (example above) in the WPA before joining the Harry 'A' Chesler studio in 1940. Raboy was mainly inspired by the great Alex Raymond (as was Lou Fine and many others) and he would eventually take over Raymond's Flash Gordon newspaper strip to wide acclaim. Considered one of the very best artists of the Golden Age, his one weakness was speed; he didn't have any and was constantly in the deadline doldrums. Despite this, his output, in the aggregate, was immense and he would eventually draw dozens of characters (too many to list). His most admired Golden Age work was a long, aesthetically pleasing and innovative run on Fawcette's Captain Marvel Jr. Like Crossen, Raboy would only be active in comics during the high-point of the Golden Age, leaving the field in 1946 to do Flash Gordon and dabble in 'fine art.'

 

The story below is a breath of fresh air (flavored by Dickens) when compared to the jingoistic fare common in almost every other comic on the stands at the time. The grotesque racial caricatures prevalent in most comics are avoided in this collaboration of two above-average talents, with excellent effect.