poneclub John Cassaday, Award-Winning Comic Book Artist, Dies at 52

John Cassadayponeclub, an award-winning comic book artist best known for his runs on Planetary, a series he helped create about a trio of adventurers investigating strange events, and Astonishing X-Men, on which his work offered readers a new entry point to a decades-old franchise, died on Sept. 9 in Manhattan. He was 52.

Tara A. Martinez, his partner, said he died of cardiac arrest in a hospital.

In a medium known for its often fantastical scenarios, Mr. Cassaday’s drawings conveyed a sense of realism. Nowhere was that more evident than in his work on Planetary, which he created with the writer Warren Ellis. His work on that series “rightfully put him on the map,” Mark Waid, a comic book editor and writer, wrote on Facebook.

Writing in his newsletter after Mr. Cassaday died, Mr. Ellis recalled one of the first times he met with him about working together on Planetary, which began in 1999.

ImageMr. Cassaday, who created Planetary with the writer Warren Ellis, worried about drawing the same characters in every story, but each issue provided him with different characters and situations. This cover, from 2006, shows Elijah Snow, one of the members of the Planetary team.Credit...DC

“John said he’d love to try a monthly series, but hated the idea of having to draw the same thing every issue,” Mr. Ellis wrote. He rarely did: Within the first year of the series, Mr. Cassaday drew versions of pulp heroes like Doc Savage, an island of monsters reminiscent of Godzilla, the ghost of a Chinese police officer who had been wrongfully killed, and a doppelgänger of Marilyn Monroe who was subjected to scientific experiments by the government.

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Perhaps the easiest character to draw was the Drummer, one of the investigators, whom Mr. Cassaday modeled on himself.

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