John Cassaday is an American comic book artist and writer, known for his work on Planetary, Astonishing X-Men and Captain America.
Early life
A self-taught illustrator, Cassaday studied filmmaking and directed TV news before leaving Texas to pursue a career in comics. His influences include NC Wyeth, classic pulp magazine-culture iconography, and popular music.
Career
Cassaday's professional career commenced in 1995 with a story in Caliber Comics' Negative Burn. However, he was not really "discovered" until the following year, when he showed his portfolio to Mark Waid at San Diego Comic-Con International; soon after the convention, Cassaday began to receive job offers. In December 1996 he began to provide art for Dark Horse Comics's Ghost. Less than 12 months later, he became the main artist on Desperadoes. He started getting work with DC and Marvel at the end of 1997, on publications such as theTeen Titans and Flash annuals, X-Men/Alpha Flight, and Union Jack.
He is best known for his work on the critically acclaimed Planetary with writer Warren Ellis, Astonishing X-Men with Joss Whedon and Captain America with John Ney Rieber. The Captain America series was a re-launch under the Marvel Knights banner. Cassaday based the covers on World War II propaganda posters; they were popular with fans and critics alike. He revisited Captain America in 2007, illustrating an issue of Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, written by Jeph Loeb. He has also created several covers for comic books featuring The Phantom, both for US publisher Moonstone Books and the European Egmont, as well as covers for Joss Whedon's Firefly spinoff comic Serenity: Those Left Behind, and Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper. Renowned as a perfectionist, Cassaday personally inks his own work manually, it is then often colored by Laura Martin.
From 2004 to 2008, Cassaday illustrated the graphic novel trilogy Je suis légion by Fabien Nury from Les Humanoïdes Associés. In July 2006, Humanoïdes announced a co-production deal with Pierre Spengler which includes a screen adaptation of the trilogy and Cassaday was penciled in to direct the film. The three books were published in eight issues as I Am Legion by Devil's Due Publishing. In 2008, he handled covers and art direction on Dynamite Entertainment's The Lone Ranger comic-book series.
Cassaday directed "The Attic", the December 18, 2009 episode of the TV Dollhouse, which aired as the tenth episode of that series' second season.
Bibliography
Dark Horse
- Ghost #27 (1996â€"1997)
- Hellboy: Weird Tales, miniseries, #1-8 (among other artists) (2003â€"04)
DC
- Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Cassaday creating Crisis (2002)
- Flash, vol. 2, Annual #10 (1997)
- I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun (2004)
- Planetary #1-27 (1999â€"2009)
- Planetary, vol. 2, #1-4 (2001â€"10)
- Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth (2003)
- Superman/Batman #26 (among other artists) (2006)
- Teen Titans Annual #1 (1997)
- Transmetropolitan: I Hate It Here (among other artists) (2000)
Image
- C-23 #6 (1998)
- Desperadoes #1, 5 (1997â€"98)
- Gen13 #33 (1998)
Marvel
- Astonishing X-Men #1-24, Giant-Sized #1 (2004â€"2008)
- Captain America, vol. 4, #1-6 (2002)
- Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America (Iron Man) #5 (2007)
- Ka-Zar: Flashback #1 (1997)
- Secret War from the Files of Nick Fury (among other artists) (2005)
- Uncanny X-Men #352 (among other artists) (1998)
- Union Jack, miniseries, #1-3 (1998â€"99)
- X-Men/Alpha Flight, miniseries, #1-2 (1998)
- Uncanny Avengers #1-4 (2012-2013)
- Miracleman Variant cover art Issue #1 (March 2014)
- Star Wars Vol. 2 #1-present (January 2015 - Present)
Books and compilations
- Ghost: Black October, Dark Horse, 1999, ISBN 1-56971-377-4
- ''Hellboy Weird Tales volumes 1 and 2, Dark Horse, 2003, ISBN 1-56971-622-6, 2004, ISBN 1-56971-953-5
- Union Jack, tpb, 96 pages, Marvel, 2002, ISBN 0-7851-0934-X
- Desperadoes: A Moment's Sunlight tpb, 104 pages, DC, 1998, ISBN 1-58240-013-X
- Desperadoes: Epidemic!, DC, 1999, ISBN B0006RRCHQ
Awards
Wins
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Penciller/Inker for Planetary and stories in Hellboy: Weird Tales
- 2005 Eisner Award for Best Penciller/Inker for Astonishing X-Men, Planetary, and I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun (tied with illustrator Frank Quitely)
- 2006 Eisner Award for Best Penciller/Inker for Astonishing X-Men and Planetary
- 2006 Eisner Award for Best Ongoing Series for Astonishing X-Men (with Joss Whedon)
- 2006 Eagle Award for Favourite Comics Artist: Pencils
- 2007 Spike TV Scream Award for Best Comic-Book Artist
Nominations
- 2000 Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist for Planetary
- 2004 Eagle Award for Favourite Comics Artist: Pencils
- 2008 Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist for Astonishing X-Men and Lone Ranger
- 2010 Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist for Irredeemable and Lone Ranger
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
- John Cassaday at the Comic Book DB
- John Cassaday at the Internet Movie Database
Interviews
- John Cassaday Interview at Comic Book Resources, October 28, 2001
- An Interview With John Cassaday at CollectorTimes.com, 2002