John Cassaday
John Cassaday (; born 1971) is an American comic book artist, writer, and television director, best known for his work on "Planetary", "Astonishing X-Men", "Captain America" and "Star Wars". He has received multiple Eagle and Eisner Awards and nominations for his work. Both Marvel Comics and DC Comics include many of Cassaday's iconic images in their marketing, and in their art and poster book collections. Marvel Comics-based animated films have made extensive use of his art. Early work. A self-taught illustrator, Cassaday attended film school and directed TV news for five years. He spent one  summer working a construction job while working on his portfolio. In 1995, Cassaday's first published work appeared in Caliber Comics "Negative Burn". Other early work includes "Flowers on the Razorwire" #5-6 (1995), and "No Profit for the Wise" (1996). He showed his portfolio to popular comic book writer and editor Mark Waid at San Diego Comic-Con International 1996. Soon after, Cassaday began receiving job offers from bigger publishers. He quit his construction job and left Texas for New York. In December 1996 he produced art for Dark Horse Comics' "Ghost". Within a year, he was hired to  be the regular artist on "Desperadoes". Career. In late 1997 was hired by DC and Marvel as artist on the "Teen Titans" and "Flash" annuals, "X-Men/Alpha Flight", and "Union Jack". His work on "X-Men" made him one of its most popular artists. Cassady quickly became an in-demand artist working on many top titles including "Gen 13", "Superman/Batman", "The Hulk", and "The Avengers". 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. Cassaday worked on multiple  Captain America projects, including an issue of "" written by Jeph Loeb, "Captain America Lives Again" and "Captain America: The New Deal". He based his cover art on World War II propaganda posters. The art was popular with fans and critics alike and Marvel released the works in a series of poster art books. He has also created covers for comic books featuring "The Phantom", for US publisher Moonstone Books and the European Egmont, as well as covers for Joss Whedon's "Firefly" spinoff comic "", and "Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper". He handled covers and art direction on Dynamite Entertainment's "The  Lone Ranger" comic-book series. Books featuring his art include "Wizard's PosterMania!", "Women of Marvel Poster Book", "Wolverine Poster Book", "New Avengers Poster Book", three editions of the "Captain America Poster Book", and "DC Comics Covergirls". From 2004 to 2008, Cassaday illustrated the graphic novel trilogy "" by from Les Humanoïdes Associés. The English language edition was published as an eight issue comic series "I Am Legion" by Devil's Due Publishing. In July 2006, Humanoïdes announced a co-production deal with Pierre Spengler for a screen adaptation of the work. At the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, it was announced  that the three picture series would be directed by Nacho Cerda with a screenplay by Richard Stanley. Cassaday has written stories for "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 wrote drawing instruction articles for "Wizard Magazine"'s "Wizard: How to Draw". Film and television. Cassaday directed "The Attic", the December 18, 2009 episode of the TV show "Dollhouse", which aired as the tenth episode of that series' second season. His art also appeared in an episode of "HBO First Look", a 2003  documentary about the making of the "Daredevil" film. The "Astonishing X-Men" animated DVD series was adapted as a motion comic from John's art for the comic book series written by Joss Whedon. Cassaday also appeared in "Generation X: The Comic Book History of the X-Men", a 2006 DVD documentary about the "X-Men" franchise. Cassaday also worked on the film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' classic graphic novel "Watchmen" as a concept artist. He appeared in a Wizard World sponsored documentary in 2002, and his art was used extensively in "Adventures into Digital Comics". As  an actor, Cassaday appeared in small roles in the 2012 horror film "House on the Hill" and "ITV Playhouse". Current work. John Cassaday appeared in the "Captain America 75th Anniversary" television special on ABC in 2016. He is also the artist of the upcoming "Captain America" comics special anniversary issue. Cassaday and Joss Whedon will team up on a new story featuring Sam Wilson. Cassaday headlined the highly successful 2015 "Star Wars" revival at Marvel Comics. The book became the #1 selling comic for 2015. According to "Forbes" magazine, it was the top-selling comic of the last 20 years . It sold approximately one million copies. Art process. Comics art is often created by a team, but Cassaday, well known as a perfectionist, draws his art himself in pencil, then creates the final ink art by hand. He digitally colors most of his cover art over his hand-drawn work. He also does cover art in ink and charcoal. He credits the challenges of working on complicated books like "Planetary" with making him a better artist. His influences include NC Wyeth, classic pulp magazine-culture iconography, and popular music.