John Cassaday, one of the most acclaimed and successful comic book artists of his generation, artist on Astonishing X-Men and co-creator (and artist) of Planetary, has passed away at age 52.

Cassaday was a self-taught artist who attended film school, and worked in telvision news for a while. His first comic book work appeared in 1994 for Hart Fisher’s Boneyard Press, and then in a story written by Fisher in Caliber Press’ Negative Burn #28 in 1995…

Cassaday began to share his portfolio, and started to receive assignments from bigger publishers, including an issue of Ghost for Dark Horse in 1996.

This led to his biggest comic book assignment yet, as he and Jeff Mariotte created the Western series, Desperadoes, for Wildstorm Comics (then still known as Homage Comics)…

He began to work for DC and Marvel during this period, but in 1998, he was part of a new line of books by Warren Ellis at Wildstorm. Authority by Ellis and Bryan Hitch, and Planetary, about a group of inter-dimensional archaeologists, by Ellis and Cassaday…

Cassaday’s style developed during this period, becoming more and more realistic, without losing any of the dynamic nature of his earlier work. Combined with his excellent storytelling skills, he was now one of the top artists working in the entire comic book industry.

He launched a new Captain America series in 2002 for Marvel, with covers inspired by classic pieces of World War II propaganda…

He continued drawing Planetary throughout this time, but it was on a sporadic schedule, as he was working on a number of other projects. His most prominent during this period was launching Astonishing X-Men with Joss Whedon in 2004….

The series won Cassaday two Eisner Awards for Best Penciler/Inker.

Cassaday drew I Am Legion for Humanoids during this period, as well…

Planetary ended in 2009. Since then, Cassaday mostly worked on special projects, like launching Uncanny Avengers for Marvel in 2012…

and then the much-anticipated return of Star Wars to Marvel in 2015…

Cassaday mostly stopped doing interior pages, instead thrilling the comic book industry with his consistently amazing comic book covers, especially a striking run on Lone Ranger covers for Dynamite Comics…

while doing work in film and television (doing design work for Watchmen, and directing an episode of Whedon’s Dollhouse TV series).

In 2018, Humanoids hired Cassaday to serve as its Chief Creative Officer.

Cassaday continued doing covers for various publishers in recent years, including a stunning series of connected covers for the Star Wars War of the Bounty Hunters event…

Cassaday’s older sister broke the news of Cassaday’s passing earlier today, writing “My little bro John passed away at 6:51pm Texas time. Please keep me and my mom in your prayers.”

Our condolences to John Cassday’s friends and family.