Mel Casson

Life Dates1920 – 2008

Mel Casson was born on July 25, 1920 in Boston MA. He sold his first cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post at the age of 17, and his work appeared in nearly all the leading periodicals of the time. He received a scholarship to study at the Art Students League in New York City. Casson served in the infantry during World War II, and participated in the D-Day invasions of Normandy. After the war, he returned to cartooning and is best known for the comic strip "Mixed Singles / Boomer" and the daily comic "Redeye," which he illustrated for nearly 20 years. Casson founded the cartoon collection of the Westport Public Art Collections, encouraging many of his cartoonist friends to donate drawings. Casson lived in Westport, and died on May 21, 2008.