This is "Just Like a Ghost," a brand-new feature where I spotlight notable comic book ghost artists, the great artists who drew under the name of other, more famous artists.

The most famous comic book artist in terms of ghost artists is Bob Kane, because Kane was one of the only artists who not only used ghost artists, but actively sought to pretend that he WASN'T using ghost artists for many years. Plenty of artists have used ghosts over the years, they generally are willing to discuss them after the fact. Kane wasn't like that.

Because Kane wasn't talking, not many editors kept detailed records and and a lot of these stories are practically 80 years old, identifying these ghosts often comes down to guys like Martin O'Hearn, who identifies creators based on their styles. Martin's really good at this stuff. I've featured him on the site a few other times over the years (I like that I have him on my side on the classic "Did Bill Finger write Batman's origin?" debate - we're in the affirmative) and it was Martin who figured out that one of the missing ghosts was an artist named Paul Cooper (check out Martin's sleuthing here).

Cooper drew a dozen Batman stories, but the most notable one of his tales was "Dinosaur Island" in Batman #35 (written by Bill Finger, inks most likely by Ray Burnley), which introduced the mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex which has been in the Bat-Cave pretty much ever since...

He also drew an awesome time travel tale in Batman #36 (also with Finger and Burnley)...

Here's one of his DC crime stories, for Mister District Attorney #1, shining the spotlight on the "Studio Cop"...

And finally, from an early 1950s Marvel horror series, Journey Into Unknown Worlds #7, here's a cool little oddball story (which Cooper SIGNED, making it easier for Martin to identify him)...

Cooper then got into inking for the rest of the 1950s, with the last credit I've seen him being in 1956. I don't know what happened to him since.

If anyone knows anything about Paul Cooper, please feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com and I'll either add the information to this post or maybe do a follow-up post!