Chris Cassatt

Chris Cassatt quietly began his newspaper career in 1970 when he was hired to work in The Aspen Times pressroom as a "flyboy" stacking newspapers as they came off the press. He eventually worked in almost all production and editorial positions at the paper. He was chief photographer for a more than a decade. His photographs from that era can be seen in the book The Story of Aspen by former Aspen Times editor, Mary Eshbaugh Hayes. His name still appears on The Aspen Times masthead where it has been for nearly 40 years.

Mixed in with his other newspaper duties, Chris began cartooning in 1972. His first attempt was a photo cartoon called Protonibus Lives. Over the years there have been many incarnations of his comic strips and panel cartoons published in the pages of the Times. The most memorable were Sal A. Mander, Pizza Bones and Downe & Dirty. The current cartoon simply called Mander seems to be drifting toward a site gag panel having little to do with Sal. It appears in The Aspen Times Weekly edition. He admits, "These days I just harvest whatever's rattling around in my head at deadline time. I guess you could call it scavenger cartooning."

Chris also does a weekly editorial cartoon which appears in the Thursday edition of The Aspen Times Daily. The subjects addressed are usually of a "local" nature.

Beyond that, Chris produces the internationally syndicated comic strip Shoe which he does along with Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly.