John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men and Planetary Artist, Dies at 52

John Cassaday, a prolific artist known for his work on comic series like Planetary, Astonishing X-Men, and Star Wars, has passed away at the age of 52. The news was first confirmed by Cassaday’s sister, Robin, who revealed via Facebook that he had been admitted to the ICU four days earlier. While Cassaday’s cause of death is currently unknown at this time, Robin’s previous post had cited issues with his brain. Comic writer Mark Waid, who worked with Cassaday on a number of projects, also shared a tribute.

“I refuse to take any real credit for “discovering” John Cassaday,” Waid wrote in part. “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. 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.”

Born in 1971, Cassaday got his start in film school and television news, and briefly took on a construction job. After being “discovered” by Waid, he ultimately moved from Texas to New York, getting work for Dark Horse and Homage Comics. He then joined Marvel and DC on titles like Teen Titans, X-Men, Alpha Flight, Union Jack, Gen13, Superman/Batman, and The Hulk. One of his most iconic characters was Captain America, which included the “Captain America Lives Again” and “Captain America: The New Deal” issue of Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America. 

Cassaday is perhaps best known for co-creating Planetary, the group of Wildstorm antiheroes that includes The Drummer, Jakita Wagner, and Elijah Snow. He also helped kick off the 2004 revival of Astonishing X-Men. More recently, Cassaday worked alongside Jason Aaron on Marvel’s record-breaking revival of the Star Wars comics.

In addition to extensive work on comic interiors and covers, Cassaday also wrote on titles such as Hellboy: Weird Tales, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, Rocketeer Adventures, X-Men: Alpha Flight, Bela Lugosi: Takes from the Grave, and Union Jack. He also dabbled back into the world of film and television, directing an episode of Fox’s Dollhouse, serving as a concept artist on the Watchmen movie, and appearing in 2012’s House on the Hill. Across his career, he won three Eisner Awards and was nominated for five more.

Our thoughts are with Cassaday’s family, friends, and fans at this time.