Joseph Orlando (April 4, 1927 – December 23, 1998) was a contributing artist for Watchmen.
A fictionalized portrayal of him is depicted in the supplemental article detailing the in-universe history of Tales of the Black Freighter at the end of issue five of Watchmen.
Behind the Scenes[]
- In 1987, Joe Orlando created an illustration for a page for "The Shanty of Edward Teach", a story from the fictional comic series Tales of the Black Freighter, which was featured in the supplemental text piece from Watchmen #5, Treasure Island Treasury of Comics. Orlando's contribution was designed as if it were a page from the fictitious title; the conceit being that Orlando had been the artist for a run of stories from the Tales of the Black Freighter comic. Watchmen writer Alan Moore chose Orlando because he felt that if pirate stories were popular in the Watchmen universe, DC editor Julius Schwartz would have lured Orlando into drawing a pirate comic book. The Orlando page was the only artwork for the series not by Dave Gibbons.
