John Cassaday, the co-creator and artist of Planetary, has passed away yesterday at the age of 52. The news was reported by his sister on social media, as well as by his colleagues and friends.
“My dear friend John Cassaday passed today at the absurdly young age of 52 and I miss him already,” said writer Mark Waid, who met Cassaday when he reviewed his portfolio in the 1990s.
“John Cassaday, I will say without hesitation and with very little fear of disagreement, was one of the very best illustrators and storytellers to ever work in the comics medium,” Waid continued. “Like Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, or Michael Golden, he is a touchstone, a reference point to the dozens and dozens of artists whose work was influenced by his. Most people are lucky if more than a dozen people are still talking about them a month after they pass. My friend John will be talked about and remembered by an entire industry for ages. And rightfully so. Rest in peace, sir.”
Although no cause of death has been mentioned, former Wildstorm editor Scott Dunbier said Cassaday had been hospitalized last week.
“I’ve been thinking back on the good times,” Dunbier said in his Facebook post. “Hanging out at the worst bachelor party ever in the farthest outskirts of Brooklyn; firing a devastated John from the planned WildC.A.T.s relaunch and then telling him on the same call that I had something better for him (Planetary). I remember him calling me back 15 minutes later, after he read the faxed proposal, more excited than I had ever heard him; John flying out to California (with many others) for my insane two day bachelor party. There were so many good times. As so many people have eloquently shared, he was not only a wonderful artist, he was a genuinely good person. Like another good friend who left us much too early, he was the flame people gravitated towards.”
Born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1971, Cassaday went to film school and worked in television news after he graduated. A self-taught artist, he moved to New York and took a job in construction while he worked on his comics portfolio.
“John was pleasant, he was polite and well-mannered, and when he showed me his portfolio, I also knew he was tremendously talented for a newcomer,” Waid said about meeting him at the Big Apple Comic Con. “The next morning, I was having breakfast with writer Jeff Mariotte, who mentioned he was looking for an illustrator for his next series, Desperadoes. Boy, did he say that to the right guy, because I had just the artist in mind.”
Mariotte said he took Cassaday’s back to California to show Wildstorm head Jim Lee.
“I took copies of the pages back to the studio in California and showed them to Jim, who agreed that John could do the job,” Mariotte wrote.” Our then editor-in-chief Jonathan Peterson called John and offered him the gig, and to my delight, John accepted. Soon I had some character sketches–the first images ever drawn of the folks who were by then living in my head–and they were brilliant.”
While Cassaday had stories published by Boneyard Press, Caliber and even Marvel prior to Desperadoes, the high-profile Western book was part of Wildstorm’s recently launched Homage line, home to Astro City and Leave It To Chance, and shined a light on his talent.
“John had grown up on a Texas farm,” Mariotte said. “He knew horses and cattle and the wide-open landscapes of the American west. He also knew dynamic comics storytelling, and he brought it all to the beautiful pages he delivered.”
Cassaday drew the original Desperadoes five-issue miniseries and a one-shot, and while Mariotte continued the book with other artists, Cassaday moved onto an even bigger project — Planetary with writer Warren Ellis.
“I had shown an early photocopy of Desperadoes #1 to comics writer Warren Ellis, who gave me a very nice blurb for the series,” Mariotte said. “After our Desperadoes run, Warren snagged John for his WildStorm series Planetary, which made John a superstar.”
And that it did. Planetary launched in 1999, the perfect time for a conspiracy-themed book about the superhero genre.
“Cassaday’s art was the perfect vehicle for this story,” wrote The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald. “He had an amazing design sense, but also drew spectacularly more than human characters, and could make the ordinary look mysterious. And he was the model for The Drummer, if you hadn’t figured that out.”
Planetary’s schedule was sporadic, giving Cassaday time to draw other books in between issues. He drew six issues of a new post -9/11 Captain America story for Marvel before moving to another high-profile book — Astonishing X-Men, written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Josh Whedon. He drew 24 issues plus a Giant-Size issue between 2004 and 2008, then returned to Planetary to finish it up. Cassaday won the 2005 and 2006 Eisners for Best Penciller/Inker, while Astonishing X-Men won the 2006 Eisner for Best Ongoing Series.
In 2015, when Marvel was looking to relaunch their Star Wars line, they recruited Cassaday to work with Jason Aaron on the series. The first issue sold more than a million copies and was the top-selling comic of the year. He also wrote several comics over the years, for comics like Hellboy: Weird Tales, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, Rocketeer Adventures, X-Men: Alpha Flight, Bela Lugosi: Takes from the Grave and Union Jack. And of course, his cover art was legendary, particular for books like Dynamite’s Lone Ranger, where he defined the art style of the book.
“John Cassaday was one of my favorite creators,” DC’s Jim Lee posted on Instagram. “He was an incredible artist who drew beautifully naturalistic figures when house styles chased hyper realism trends. A true maverick—John was also a nuanced storyteller who relied on sharp compositions and precise framing which made his imagery cinematic and powerful.
“The sum total was just pure comics. And I loved his work, especially his early gritty work on Desperadoes and later, his mind-blowing work on Planetary. As did so many of you all.”
We offer our sincerest condolences to John Cassaday’s family, friends, colleagues and fans.
