Comic artist and writer John Cassaday died on September 9, 2024, in New York City. He was 52 years old.

Cassaday’s art exuded realism and theatrical flair, combined with top notch storytelling to make him a dynamic presence in comics. He is known for his work in Captain America, with Warren Ellis in Planetary, and with Jeff Mariotte in Desperados.

He was born December 14, 1971, in Fort Worth, Texas. A self-taught artist, he attended film school and directed TV commercials during the early days of his career. Cassaday broke into comics at Boneyard Press and Caliber Comics in the mid-1990s, then he presented his portfolio to writer-editor Mark Waid at San Diego Comic-Con. Waid gave Cassaday some recommendations, and he landed gigs creating art for Ghost at Dark Horse and then as the regular artist on the Western series Desperados at Wildstorm (then Homage Comics).

Cassaday started working for both DC and Marvel in the late ‘90s as an artist on Teen Titans, Flash annuals, X-Men, and Alpha Flight, and he worked with Wildstorm on Authority and Planetary. From there, he moved on to Gen13, Superman/Batman, The Avengers, The Hulk, and he became popular artist on Captain America titles like Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America.

As a cover artist, Cassaday drew inspiration from World War II propaganda posters, establishing a niche for himself. His covers have been collected in poster art books including Women of Marvel Poster Book, New Avengers Poster Book, Captain America Poster Book, and DC Comics Covergirls. He provided covers for The Phantom, Serenity: Those Left Behind, and created covers and was art director on Dynamite’s Long Ranger series.

In 2004, he introduced Astonishing X-Men, earning two Eisner Awards for Best Penciler/Inker. Cassaday illustrated the I Am Legion graphic novel trilogy and drew instructional articles for Wizard Magazine’s Wizard: How to Draw. He also wrote stories for Hellboy: Weird Tales, Rocketeer Adventures, X-Men: Alpha Flight, and Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream. He launched Uncanny Avengers in 2012 and led the Star Wars revival series at Marvel in 2015. Cassaday was the Chief Creative Officer for Humanoids and continued providing covers for titles like Star Wars and Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters.

Outside of comics, he was a concept artist on the film adaptation of Watchmen and he directed an episode of the TV series, Dollhouse. His art has appeared onscreen in an episode of HBO First Look about the filming of the Daredevil movie, and his art was used in the documentary Adventures into Digital Comics.

Writer Jeff Mariotte, who was then prepping his western-horror hybrid series, Desperadoes, met Cassaday early in the artist’s career as he was searching for someone who could address both genres convincingly.

“The hard part was finding the right artist, someone who could get the historical West right and also do action and horror. I shared a meal with Mark Waid at a convention, and he told me about a kid named John Cassaday who was looking to break in. As soon as I saw John’s samples, I knew he was the guy. He grew up in Texas and knows what the Western landscape looks like, knows horses and hats, and has a brilliant, realistic style and a powerful work ethic. Once he was on board, it all came together in a hurry, and the first issue appeared in September 1997,” Mariotte said.

“He developed the visual appearance of the characters. He wasn’t yet well known, but over the course of his run he became well known. I showed early pages to Warren Ellis, who tapped John for Planetary, which made him a superstar,” he wrote in a post.

“Outside of that fortuitous referral, I refuse to take any real credit for ‘discovering’ John Cassaday. I can’t take credit for having functioning eyeballs. But we were friends forevermore after that, and watching his quick ascension to becoming one of the most gifted, most sought-after comics illustrators of his generation was a blast,” writer Mark Waid said in a post. “John had a memorable stint on X-Men and another on his favorite character, Captain America, but it was Planetary that rightfully put him on the map. He was meticulous, he wouldn’t turn in a single piece of art until he’d worried it to death, and as his publisher for a brief time at Humanoids, I had the great and now melancholy pleasure of watching magnificent pages, his best ever, come in slowly on his dream project, an unannounced creator-owned multimedia series that will now be his unfinished symphony.”