John Cassaday Profile

Name:

John Cassaday

Born:

1971

Occupation:

Comic Book Artist

Claim To Fame:

John Cassaday is a white hot artist who has been a part of some high profile projects from the re-launching of Captain America, working with Warren Ellis on Planetary, and working with Joss Whedon on Astonishing X-Men.

Interesting Fact:

Being a bit of a perfectionist, Cassaday acts as both the penciler and inker for his work.

Personal Website:

www.johncassaday.com

Bio:

John Cassaday got his start the way many people dream, by taking his portfolio to the San Diego Comic Convention. One of the people he ran into was Mark Waid. As Waid says in Cassaday’s website, “I can say honestly that I've never seen a better convention portfolio ever, and I knew the moment I looked at his work that he'd be a pro in short order.” It was only a month later that John Cassady started to receive phone calls about job offers.

He first got some work with Dark Horse comics working on the comic book, “Ghost.” Cassaday later worked on a few different mini-series such as X-Men/Alpha Flight, Union Jack, and Desperadoes. His first series was with writer Warren Ellis and colorist Laura Martin on “Planetary” which has become hailed as a classic piece of comic book literature.

Cassaday’s next big break was in the re-launching of “Captain America” under the Marvel Knights banner. The covers of the comic were inspired by WW2 wartime propaganda posters and the series was critically acclaimed and fan approved. Cassaday had signed on for just 6 issues but Cassaday is quoted as saying in an interview with Silverbullets Comics, “I only signed on to do the first six issues. But Joe made it clear to me that he'd like me back whenever possible. It's open-ended.”

His latest endeavor has been working with Joss Whedon (Serenity/Firefly, Buffy, and Angel) on the latest X-Men launch, “Astonishing X-Men.” The series has been a top seller in 2005 and has seen the return of the classic X-Men foe, The Hellfire Club.

Despite complaints about the lateness of his work making the titles he works on being late, Cassaday says it isn’t him. He typically produces 5 pages of work a week and said in an interview with Silver Bullet Comics, “…the fact is, the vast majority of late books have had little or nothing to do with me. Without bragging, I can tell you that I'm quite fast.”

Cassaday continues to prove he is one of the top comic artists in the world.