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John Cassaday, the legendary co-creator of Planetary and the artist on groundbreaking and bestselling runs of Astonishing X-Men and Star Wars has died at 52. He was admitted to hospital in New York last week, and passed away yesterday, with his sister Robin K Cassaday breaking the news on social media. She wrote, "My little bro John passed away at 5:51pm Texas time. Please keep me and my mom in your prayers."
Mark Waid has posted a note to Facebook hailing his friend and colleague, describing him as "one of the very best illustrators and storytellers to ever work in the comics medium." Waid played an instrumental role in the young Cassaday's career by recommending him to writer Jeff Mariotte who was looking for an artist for his acclaimed weird west comic, Desperadoes.
Cassaday quickly followed that up with a succession of projects for other publishers, including DC and Marvel, where he worked on everything from Teen Titans, The Flash, and Superman/Batman, to the X-Men, Hulk, and The Avengers.
1998 was a turning point for Cassaday. Sales of Image's WildStorm titles had been declining, prompting the imprint's sale to DC. The publisher used this an opportunity to launch a series of bold and brilliant new comics, notably The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, and Planetary by Ellis and Cassaday. That series launched with a preview in Gen 13 #33, launching fully a couple of months later. Planetary ran for 27 issues over the course of the next decade and inspired countless creators with its mind-bending stories and the heightened realism of Cassaday's stunning art.
Cassaday continued to work on many other comics in this period, notably launching Astonishing X-Men with Joss Whedon. That series helped Cassaday bag his first (of five in his lifetime) Eisner Awards, for Best Penciller/Inker and remains one of the most iconic X-runs of the last few decades.
Cassaday took on a high profile redesign of Captain America in 2012, with another big gig coming a couple of years later in the form of Marvel's Star Wars relaunch. The first issue of that series, written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Cassaday, sold a million copies and became the bestselling US comic of the 2010s. Cassaday drew the full first arc of the series before handing it over to a roster of different artists.
As well as his work in comics, Cassaday continued to explore his interests in film and TV – he had attended film school and had directed TV news for five years before his comics career took off. He provided concept art for various movies, including Zack Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen, and directed an episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.
While Cassaday had largely shied away from drawing comic interiors in recent years, he continued to contribute extraordinary covers for a wide-range of projects including the likes of The Lone Ranger, The Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Barbarian, and several different X-Men titles. At the time of his death he was also at work on a new project for Humanoids, which Mark Waid described as "an unannounced creator-owned multimedia series that will now be his unfinished symphony."
Numerous creators from the comics world have since paid their tributes to Cassaday. Scott Snyder wrote that "the impact of John Cassaday's work on myself and the whole industry is indelible. This is a tremendous loss to the comics community," while David Pepose wrote on Twitter, "He was an artist of limitless talent, who should've had decades left to do whatever he wanted. This is a loss that feels as unfair as it is unbelievable." Ben Templesmith, meanwhile, summed up the thoughts of many by writing "There'll never be another John Cassaday."
A truly great artist whose work continues to enthral and inspire, Newsarama would like to offer our deepest sympathies to John Cassaday's family and friends.
