Joseph Lawrence Greene (August 1, 1914 – 1990) was an American author of science fiction novels and short stories whose most familiar creations are Tom Corbett, Space Cadet which, in 1951, became a television series popular with young audiences, as well as Dig Allen Space Explorer, a series of six books published between 1959 and 1962, which focused around the adolescent hero Dig Allen and his interplanetary adventures in the genre of boys' juvenile literature. A prolific writer, he also contributed numerous stories to comic books and was an editor, until 1972, for Grosset publishing while writing under a number of pseudonyms including, purportedly, the house pen name "Alvin Schwartz" and also "Richard Mark", and using sundry variations of his own name ("Joseph Lawrence", "Joe Green", "Joseph Verdy", "Larry Verdi", "Lawrence Vert"), which exemplified such foreign-language wordplays for "Green" as "Verdy", "Verdi" and "Vert". Comics Joseph Greene was involved in many key titles during the so-called Golden Age of Comic Books, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. He apparently acted as "a ghost writer for the some of most famous comic characters of the era", including The Green Lama, Spunky and Golden Lad (for Spark Publications). In 1942, he is believed to have begun working for DC Comics on their All-American line of characters including Aquaman, Boy Commandos, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Superman and Wonder Woman. He is also said to have worked for comics publishers including the American Comics Group, Better Publications (including on The Fighting Yank), Dell Publications (including Tom Corbett, Space Cadet), Lev Gleason Publications, Marvel Comics as well as Fawcett Comics and Hillman Periodicals for which, during the early 1950s, he wrote various romance comics. According to comics historian Jerry Bails, Greene wrote for Frank Frazetta's syndicated newspaper strip Johnny Comet/Ace McCoy in 1952–53, and CIO News' first strip, The Adventures of Jim Barry, Trouble Shooter. He also reputedly provided work for the pulp magazine features The Black Bat and The Phantom. Early Tom Corbett Greene also produced work for radio, film and television, most notably for various versions of Tom Corbett. Around 1945, he provided a script for a comic book storyline likely entitled Space Academy, before submitting to Orbit Feature Services, Inc., on January 16, 1946, a script (originally titled The Pirates of Space, but subsequently revised to Space Cadets) for a prospective radio show featuring primary cadet Tom Ranger. The following year, Greene