Guardineer was no initiate in the mystic art of conjuring comic book magicians. His first published work was in Action Comics #1, with the first appearance of the magician Zatara, whose most profound difference from the much imitated Mandrake was his power of sdrawkcab hceeps (backward speech); anything the mage uttered in reverse was a magic spell. Guardineer also created Yarko the Great for Fox, Marvelo, the Monarch of Magicians for Columbia Comics, and Tor the Magic Master for Merlin's own Quality Comics. Merlin was one of the few comic book magicians not actually created by Guardineer, but the prolific fellow would do more to distinguish the character than anyone else.

Quality's Merlin was playboy Jock Kellog, who receives from a dying uncle both a green hooded cloak and the news that he is the last direct descendant of the legendary magician Merlin. The cloak gives him the powers of his famous ancestor, and he immediately sets out to use his 'occult powers to aid democracies in their fight against oppression' in war-torn Europe.

Guardineer would give Merlin Zatara's power of backward speech, but the most distinguishing characteristic would be the chosen mode of transportation for Quality's first magic dude; the airplane. Merlin had levitated like a good magician for a number of issues before adopting the airplane as a means of travel. This was perhaps an appeal to the Lindbergh envy of those times as well as a nod to the barnstorming Houdini. Either way, this modern-day Merlin got around in style.