Joseph Orlando (April 4, 1927 – December 23, 1998) was a contributing artist for Watchmen.
He created an illustration for a page for "The Shanty of Edward Teach", a story from the in-universe comic series Tales of the Black Freighter, which was featured in the supplemental text piece from issue five of Watchmen, Treasure Island Treasury of Comics.
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
- Joe Orlando’s contribution to Watchmen was created to look like an actual illustration from Tales of the Black Freighter. The idea behind it was that, in the Watchmen universe, Orlando had drawn a series of illustrations for that pirate-themed series. Alan Moore chose Orlando specifically because he believed that, if pirate comics were popular in that world, DC editor Julius Schwartz would naturally have recruited Orlando to work on them.
- Joe Orlando’s page is also notable for being the only piece of artwork in Watchmen not drawn by Dave Gibbons.
