Mel Casson, 1920-2008






King Features Syndicate has announced the passing of cartoonist Mel Casson. Casson was the cartoonist behind the Redeye strip for almost 20 years, first illustrating it after creator Gordon Bess and then writing and illustrating it upon the passing of Bill Yates. Casson died on May 21 in his Connecticut home.

Casson was born in Boston and was trained at the Art Students League in New York City. While in New York, his work began to appear in high-profile magazine clients such as Esquire, Ladies Home Journal, the New York Times and the Saturday Evening Post.

He served in the infantry in World War II, was promoted in the field to Captain and received two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts and the Croix de Guerre. He would return to active duty in Korea, which interrupted his service on the strip Jeff Crockett. After his Korean service he did the panel cartoons Spark and Angel and the strip It's Me Dilly (with Alfred Andriola). He was involved with two television shows on ABC, either as a writer, an on-air talent or both: Draw Me A Laugh and You Be The Judge. He was also a prolific maker of gag cartoons, an advertising illustrator and a well-known close friend of the cartoonist Milton Caniff. Mike Lynch has posted some of Casson's cartoon work.

With William F. Brown, Casson created the Mixed Singles strip, which ran until 1981 under both that title and Boomer. Casson joined Redeye in 1990 and the strip still appeared in nearly 100 newspapers as recently as a few years ago. Casson's papers and originals have been archived at Ohio State University. He was a resident of Westport, Connecticut for nearly 40 years.

He is survived by a wife, daughter and two grandchildren. The family has asked that donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association.

caption on gag cartoon: "This is the reason I gave up playing with dolls."
 
posted 8:22 am PST | Permalink
 

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