Comics Cassaday directed
television news in Texas for five years before moving to New York. He spent one summer working a construction job while working on his portfolio in preparation for
San Diego Comic-Con. In 1994 Cassaday broke into the comic book industry with a one-page illustration and a short story for
Boneyard Press. In December
1996 he produced art for
Dark Horse Comics'
Ghost. Within a year, he was hired to be the regular artist on
Homage Comics'
Desperadoes. In late 1997 Cassaday 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 the title's most popular artists. In 1999, Cassaday and writer
Warren Ellis created
Planetary for
WildStorm Productions. Relating the manner in which the episodic series would feature different settings in each issue, Ellis, recalled in 2024, "John said he'd love to try a monthly series, but hated the idea of having to draw the same thing every issue." To this end, the stories revolved around concepts as diverse as
Doc Savage analogues, an island of monsters reminiscent of Japanese
kaiju films, the ghost of a murdered Chinese police officer, and a doppelgänger of
Marilyn Monroe who was subjected to scientific experiments by the government. Cassaday's covers for the series were designed like movie posters, with the book's logo reimaginzed for each issue. He also modeled the character Drummer after himself. 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 wrote 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. John Cassaday appeared in the
Captain America 75th Anniversary television special on ABC in January 2016. That same year he provided the art on the
Captain America special anniversary issue. and re-teamed with Joss Whedon on a story featuring
Sam Wilson in
Captain America: Sam Wilson #7. 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, having sold approximately one million copies.
Film and television Work Cassaday's art appeared in an episode of
HBO First Look, a 2003 documentary about the making of the
Daredevil film. He worked as a
concept artist on the
film adaptation of
Alan Moore and
Dave Gibbons' classic graphic novel
Watchmen. In 2009, the
Astonishing X-Men animated DVD series was adapted as a
motion comic from Cassaday's art for the comic book series written by Joss Whedon. Cassaday directed "The Attic", the December 18, 2009 episode of the television series
Dollhouse, which aired as the tenth episode of that series' second season. Cassaday's art was used extensively in the Futureal Studio documentary
Adventures into Digital Comics (2010).
Onscreen appearances Cassaday himself appeared in a
Wizard World-sponsored documentary in 2002. He also appeared in
Generation X: The Comic Book History of the X-Men, a 2006 DVD documentary about the
X-Men franchise. As an actor, Cassaday appeared in small roles in the 2012 horror film
House on the Hill and
ITV Playhouse. ==Technique and materials==