John Cassaday, Astonishing Comic Artist, Has Died

John Cassady, multiple Eisner award-winning comics artist, has passed away at the age of 52. Said to have been admitted to the ICU at Mount Sinai West Hospital in New York last week, Cassady’s sister, Robin, confirmed on social media yesterday that her “little bro John passed away at 6:51pm Texas time. Please keep me and my mom in your prayers.”

As well as being the artist on Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, Marvel’s Star Wars relaunch with writer Jason Aaron, and Captain America with Jeph Loeb and John Neiy Reiber, Cassady’s prolific body of work includes co-creating Planetary with Warren Ellis, I Am Legion with Fabien Nury and Desperadoes with Jeff Mariotte. Cassaday’s writing credits include work on Hellboy: Weird Tales, Rocketeer Adventures, Bela Lugosi: Tales from the Grave, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, Union Jack and X-Men: Alpha Flight. Not just limited to comics, Cassady additionally directed an episode of the sci-fi series, Dollhouse, appeared as an actor in the 2012 horror film House On the Hill, and served as a concept artist on Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of Watchmen.

Beloved in the industry, Cassady’s death immediately inspired an outpouring of eulogies from some of comic’s top talent, including Mark Waid, Warren Ellis, Ben Templesmith, Scott Snyder, Declan Shalvey, Charles Soule, Heather Antos, Dean Haspiel, Jimmy Palmiotti, J.H. Williams III, and Andy Khouri. May he rest in peace.

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