Comic strip by Jack Cassady.
Jack Cassady is an American gag cartoonist and art teacher, who has been active in the states of South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. As an artist, he has appeared in magazines like Good Housekeeping, Woman's World and Family Circle, while his 'Monday Funnies' feature appeared online. In 1985, Cassady hosted a 13-part educational TV show on cartooning, 'Funny Business, the Art in Cartooning'. Cassady has taught many courses and given lectures on cartooning at universities and colleges. He is also the founder of the Mid-South Cartoonists Association and The Suncoast Inkslingers Club (S.I.C.), He should not be confused with the book illustrator John Cassady (1971-2024).
Early life and military career
John R. "Jack" Cassady was born in Orlando, Florida, and grew up on the beaches of the East coast of Florida in Daytona Beach and later Melbourne. From a young age, he enjoyed drawing, and entertaining his classmates with his cartoons. Among his favorite newspaper comics were Fred Lasswell's 'Snuffy Smith and Barney Google', Lynn Johnston's 'For Better Or For Worse' and Al Capp's 'Li'l Abner'.
After graduating from Melbourne High School, he studied art at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, contributing editorial cartoons to the college paper. Upon graduating with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, he won Furman's Maxwell Award in Art. He also achieved a master's degree in Education. Joining the university's Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (AROTC) program, Cassady became a distinguished military graduate, and served 22 years as an Army Officer. Starting his military career in 1962, his command and staff assignments ranged from the historic 82nd Airborne ("All American") Division and various Special Forces units in combat, to positions in the 18th Airborne Corps Headquarters and the 1st Region AROTC Headquarters junior and senior programs.
Cassady was additionally professor of military science and chairman of the AROTC departments at Georgia Military College and the University of Tennessee at Martin. When he retired from the military, the much decorated officer had reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Returning to graduate school at Memphis State University, he received a M.A. in Independent Studies, focusing on Illustration, Design and Copyright Law for Visual Communications.
Cartoon by Jack Cassady.
Cartooning career
During his military service, Jack Cassady started freelancing magazine cartoons and comics as a hobby. Later, after his post-graduate studies in Tennessee, Cassady returned to Florida, where in 1987 he established his own design and advertising firm in North Tampa, specializing in cartoons and humorous illustrations. Running the Cassady Enterprises Inc. business with his wife Brenda, Cassady has designed mascot logos for local businesses and product wrappers, and contributed his cartoons to magazines and books. Cassady has enjoyed making animal-related cartoons, particularly about cats and dogs. Himself an avid skydiver, he has also created several cartoons about this activity.
In the USA, Jack Cassady's cartoons have appeared in magazines like Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Field and Steam, National Enquirer, Woman's World and New Woman. Some have also been printed in international publications from Brazil (Ele Ella), France (Ça M'Interesse), Hungary ("The Computer Is Also Human"), India (Span), Italy (Settimana), Switzerland (Weltwoche), the United Kingdom (Annabal, She, My Weekly) and Venezuela (Interciencia). In the Internet era, his weekly gag comics and cartoons have run under the name 'Monday Funnies', and were available through e-mail subscription. Since the 1990s, he has been a contributor and art director for Heartland Boating Magazine.
Over the years, Jack Cassady's cartoons have been included in several compilation books by the Cartoonists Guild, such as 'Animals, Animals, Animals' (Harper & Row, 1979), 'Drawn Together: Relationships Lampooned, Harpooned and Cartooned' (Crown Publishers, 1983) and 'Cats, Cats, Cats' (Harper & Row, 1986). A solo compilation book of Cassady's cartoons was 'Jack Cassady's The Best of Monday Funnies & More' (Xlibris, 2012), which came with a foreword by Mort Walker. In 2017, several of Jack Cassady's animal-themed gags were collected in the book 'Animal Tales from Jack Cassady's Monday Funnies' (Xlibris, 2017), which had a foreword by Scott Adams.
During weekend events in Tampa Bay, he drew caricatures for the visitors.
Advertisement for Jack Cassady's caricatures.
Academic career
Part time, Cassady has taught courses in Cartooning, Basic Design, Drawing, Illustration, Professional Practices and Art Appreciation at the Universities of Memphis and South Florida, as well as St. Petersburg Junior College and Hillsborough Community College. Cassady also conducted workshops on copyright law for visual communications, while giving lectures at universities and colleges, and writing articles about the subject. In 1998, he became Chairman of the Department of Sequential Art at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. He also taught classes in Cartooning, Sequential Art/Visual Storytelling, Graduate and Undergraduate Figure Drawing and Art Business. After leaving Savannah College, he settled in the town of Murphy in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where he has taught private classes for the nearby J.C.Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.
Jack Cassady (left) in 1985 with cartoonist Bill Hoest, one of the guests in his TV show 'Funny Business: the Art in Cartooning' (The Tennessean, 18 July 1985).
Funny Business: The Art in Cartooning
In 1985, Cassady hosted his own TV show on cartooning, 'Funny Business: the Art in Cartooning', produced by WDCN, a public TV network from Nashville, Tennessee. Starting on 31 October 1985, thirteen half-hour episodes of the popular series were broadcast. Over a three year period, the series was then syndicated to networks in approximately 38 states. By interviewing cartoonists and visiting the offices of magazines like Hugh Hefner's Playboy, The New Yorker and Good Housekeeping, the series covered comics and cartoons from an historic angle, gave insights into the professional elements of the art form and presented thematic topics like women in cartooning, underground comix and political cartoons.
In 1987, Cassady received a letter from a viewer, who wanted to get his comic strip syndicated. Cassady advised him to start sending his comic to as many magazines as possible and even kept up a written correspondence to see whether he was making progress. The cartoonist in question was Scott Adams. Thanks to his support, Adams' best-selling newspaper comic 'Dilbert' was launched. Other cartoonists who have hosted drawing shows on television have been Roy Doty and Jack Hamm.
Mid-South Cartoonists Association
In 1987, Jack Cassady founded the Mid-South Cartoonists Association, an interest group for cartoon artists, writers and collectors from the Memphis area. Originally, their meetings were held in libraries, bookstores and members' homes. After a while, Garibaldi's Pizza near the University of Memphis became their permanent meeting spot. Among the early members were Jack Chapman, Greg Cravens, Ron Hicks, A.G. Howard, Katie Jones, Eric McMeans, Jason Negan, Mike Ramirez, Sam Ray, Scott Stantis, Charles Tuthill, Kevin L. Williams and Lin Workman.
In 1994, Cassady also established the Suncoast Inkslingers Club (S.I.C.), for cartoonists from the area around Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, while later expanding to members from Central Florida.
Self-portrait.