Mel Casson.html

Mel Casson (July 25, 1920 - May 21, 2008) was an American cartoonist with a fifty year career. He is primarily remembered for his work on the daily comic strips Sparky, Angel, Mixed Singles/Boomer, and Redeye, and for a significant number of magazine cartoons.

Mel Casson was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 25, 1920. He was encouraged by his father to pursue a career in art. He received a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York City. Casson signed a cartooning contract with The Saturday Evening Post at age 17, and his artwork began to appear regularly in the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, The New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, and many major US magazines.

Mel enlisted in the infantry for service in World War II and made the Normandy Landing on D-Day. His commander was killed instantly upon reaching Omaha Beach, leaving Casson to lead the attack. Mel successfully led his men through the assault without further casualties and went on to participate in many other battles, earning the rank of Captain and decorated with five battle stars: Two Bronze stars, the Croix de Guerre and two Purple Hearts.

After the war, Mel returned to cartooning. He created the comic strip Jeff Crockett from 1948 to 1952 for the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate.

He was recalled to active military duty in 1952 for service in the Korean War. After an honorable discharge in 1953, Mel returned to the drawing board for the Publisher/Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate from 1953 to 1966 with the children’s strips Sparky and Angel. He co-created It’s Me Dilly with fellow cartoonists Alfred James and Alfred Andriola (Kerry Drake) from 1958 to 1962.

Mel Casson had five cartoon books published, including the anthology “Ever Since Adam and Eve” for McGraw Hill, the Whole Kids Catalogue, and the Guinness Record Keeper. He did occasional television work, notably writing for and producing the television shows “Draw Me a Laugh” and “You Be the Judge.”

In the 1970’s, Mel collaborated with William F. Brown on the comic strip Mixed Singles , later renamed Boomer. It was marketed by United Feature Syndicate until 1981. In 1988, when cartoonist Gordon Bess found himself unable to continue his internationally known Redeye daily comic for King Features Syndicate, he handed it over to a collaboration of Mel Casson as illustrator and Bill Yates as writer. When Yates himself became ill in 1999, Mel took over both writing and art for the strip, a role he continued until his death in 2008.

Mel Casson was married from Mary Lee Culver Casson, an opera singer and actress, from 1965 to his death. He had one daughter, Culver. He lived in Westport, Connecticut nearly all of his married life.

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