John Cassaday, born in Fort Worth, Texas in 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 is a self-taught artist who initially put himself through three years of film school and worked for a time directing TV news before leaving his home state. John Cassaday was influenced early on by the Adam West Batman TV show and later, of course, he became a fan of Star Wars and G.I. Joe. His artistic influences include numerous artists and writers across a broad spectrum of different media, but John Cassady's favorite is American artist and illustrator, N.C. Wyeth.

John Cassaday's first professional comics work was in 1994 for Boneyard Press, a one page pinup with text by indie comics legend Hart Fisher in his horror pinup anthology one-shot, "A Touch of Silk, A Taste of Leather." He continued to work with Fisher, illustrating his short story Juju Eyes, published in Caliber's Negative Burn #28 in 1995, and illustrating Fisher's flagship character Dark Angel in a serial titled The Quiet Demon which ran in Boneyard Press' Flowers on the Razorwire horror anthology (#5-9). The story Juju Eyes was re-printed a year later along with two other Fisher shorts also illustrated by Cassaday in the CFD published one-shot No Profit For The Wise. Cassaday broke in to the main stream comics when he brought his art portfolio to the 1996 San Diego Comic Con. Cassaday's professional career commenced in 1995 with a story in Caliber Comics' Negative Burn. However, he was not really "discovered" until the following year, when he showed his portfolio to Mark Waid at San Diego Comic-Con International; soon after the convention, Cassaday began to receive job offers. In December 1996 he began to provide art for Dark Horse Comics's Ghost. Less than 12 months later, he became the main artist on Desperadoes.

In 1997, John Cassaday, shortly after his entrance into the world of comic book art, began to work Marvel Comics, working primarily on X-Men/Alpha Flight. He has also worked on Captain America, Secret War, and Union Jack. The Captain America series was a re-launch under the Marvel Knights banner. Cassaday based the covers on World War II propaganda posters; they were popular with fans and critics alike. He revisited Captain America in 2007, illustrating an issue of Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, written by Jeph Loeb. He has also created several covers for comic books featuring The Phantom, both for US publisher Moonstone Books and the European Egmont, as well as covers for Joss Whedon's Firefly spin off comic Serenity: Those Left Behind, and Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper.

John Cassaday is a perfectionist, he 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. John Cassaday credits the challenges of working on complicated books like Planetary with making him a better artist.In addition to producing freelance commercial art for Levi's Jeans and Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, Cassaday directed the season 2 episode of Joss Wheedon's Dollhouse series titled The Attic, it aired on Dec. 18, 2009. The artwork of John Cassaday is currently credited in 716 separate comic book issues.