George Marko

• Born 1901-09-02 · Died 1948-03-12

Born in Slovakia, he arrived in the United States at ten months old with his Slovak immigrant parents. He signed his works interchangeably as George Merkle and George Marko. His first foray into the comic world was with "Detective Picture Stories" by Comics Magazine Company, where he created the character Master Mind. This character also appeared in titles like "Funny Pages," "Amazing Mystery Funnies," and "Keen Detective Funnies," all published by Centaur. With the experience gained, he sold "HY Score" to the Chicago Tribune Comic Book, a Sunday strip that ran from June 30, 1940, to October 31, 1943. Subsequently, he began working for Fawcett, creating the character Dopey Danny Dee, featured in various of the publisher's titles. This character was known to Spanish-speaking audiences as Don Tarugo, appearing in Editorial Novaro's "El Capitán Marvel" series. [Source: https://www.tebeosfera.com/autores/merkle_george.html].