First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics #1 (January 1940).
Golden Age Appearances: Daring Mystery Comics #1 & #4-6.
Modern Appearances: None
Years Active: 1940-?

Surprisingly similar to Mandrake the Magician (but that must be a coincidence, surely), Monako fights criminals and spies in full tuxedo and tophat, and is aided by Pere, a superstrong aide. Unlike Mandrake, however, Monako has actual magic to fall back upon, not just stage legerdemain and hypnosis.

He also has an origin. Monako is the son of a missionary couple who were proseltyzing in India. When Monako was a young child his family was attacked by a tribe. This tribe practiced "black magic" and worshiped "many gods," and their attack wiped out Monako's family and the entire village they were living in, leaving Monako as the only survivor of the attack. The chief of the attacking tribe then raises Monako as his own son. Monako grows up, spending his teen years among the magicians of the tribe and learning their tricks. Unfortunately for him, he's away from the village when colonial soldiers slaughter the tribe, killing everyone. (In case you're keeping track at home, that's two families Monako has lost.) Monako then emigrates to England, where he is formally educated, and then returns to India. He lives there for "quite some time" and begins to correct some of the injustices caused by his adoptive tribe. Then, still later, he either moves to America or simply buys a house/opens an office there. He still spends time traveling, however, and in at least one story fights against a "student of the black arts."