This one is more of interest for its antagonist than its protagonist. The hero. Mr Risk, is basically just a detective. The villainess, here, however, is essentially a female version of the classic Batman villain Two-Face. According to Lambiek, the artist, Louis Ferstadt, "was also a painter, who created murals at the RCA Building and the Eighth Street Subway for the 1939 World’s Fair."
Here's one of Sargon the Sorcerer's more serious tales before his strip, like so many others, was taken over by a comical sidekick. Technically an All-American character (and I am NOT getting into that mess now) he was revived by DC in the late sixties as a villain! The character was bounced around quite a bit before being recently superseded by his son. Although the series had some fun early art by the legendary Joe Kubert, this tale is illustrated by Howard Purcell very nicely indeed.
Ibis was perhaps the most successful of the ear;y forties comics wizards as he actually managed to move from WHIZ to a title of his very own. GCD doesn't even want to speculate on who drew this one but looks to me like it could perhaps be Pete Costanza who assisted CAPTAIN MARVEL artist CC Beck and later drew the Big Red Cheese himself. In the sixties, Costanza worked at ACG and had a good run on DC's JIMMY OLSEN.
From the Internet ---Zachary Zambini, also called Zambini the Miracle Man, wore a magic boomerang amulet that gave him magic powers. The amulet could send evil magic back to its source which allowed Zambini to track evil to its source. Zambini was one of the gazillions of MLJ heroes revived in the classic, infamous "Too Many Superheroes" issue of THE MIGHTY CRUSADER in 1966.
Dr. Miracle--Super Scientific Detective. Don't let the name fool ya. He was yet another Mandrake the Magician clone as Magician Week continues here. Rather than Lothar, his assistant was a giant in a turban named Akim. In this particular installment they become one, similar to the later arrangement between Congo Bill and Congorilla. Dr Miracle had a healthy run in CHAMPION COMICS (aka CHAMP) in the early forties.
Already an old pro in 1940, artist Fred Guardineer is credited with creating ZATARA THE MAGICIAN in ACTION COMICS. There were lots of magicians in comic books in those days, all inspired by the newspaper hypnotist, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN. Zatara, like Mandrake, wore a top hat and tails. The other type of comics magician was the Turban-wearer. There were at least a dozen of them, too. Here's Guardineer with his take on one--MARVELO, MONARCH OF MAGICIANS.
