Joe Orlando facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Joe Orlando |
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Joe Orlando in the early 1950s
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| Born | April 4, 1927 Bari, Italy |
| Died | December 23, 1998 (aged 71) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Colourist |
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Notable works
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Creepy, Mad, DC Comics |
| Awards | Inkpot Award, 1980 Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, 2007 |
Joseph Orlando (born April 4, 1927 – died December 23, 1998) was an Italian-American artist, writer, and editor. He worked in comics for over 50 years! Joe Orlando was a big part of Mad magazine, where he was an associate publisher. He also worked at DC Comics as a vice president, helping to create many comic books and special projects.
A Life in Comics
Early Years and Art School
Joe Orlando was born in Bari, Italy. His family moved to the United States in 1929 when he was very young. He loved drawing from an early age. When he was seven, he started taking art classes at a boys' club. He won prizes every year for his art, including a special bronze medal.
In 1941, Joe went to the School of Industrial Art. This school was famous for teaching many future comic artists. Some of his classmates included Carmine Infantino and Alex Toth. Joe and Carmine Infantino stayed good friends for many years. While still in school, Joe drew his first published pictures for a high school textbook. These were scenes from Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.
After high school, Joe joined the U.S. Army. He worked as a military police officer and spent 18 months in Europe. He helped guard supplies in Germany.
Starting His Comic Career
After leaving the Army in 1947, Joe went back to New York. He studied art at the Art Students League of New York. In 1949, he started working in comic books. His first job was drawing for Treasure Chest, a Catholic-themed comic. He earned nine dollars for each page he drew.
Working with EC and Mad Magazine
In the early 1950s, Joe Orlando worked as an assistant to artist Wally Wood. Then, in 1951, he became a regular artist for EC Comics. He earned $25 per page there. Soon after, he married his first wife, Gloria.
After EC Comics, from 1956 to 1959, Joe drew comic book versions of classic books. These included Ben-Hur and A Tale of Two Cities. He also drew for EC's Mad magazine from 1957 to 1969. Joe even wrote for the Little Orphan Annie comic strip starting in 1964. His art appeared in Newsweek and New Times magazines, children's books, and many other comic books.
Editing Creepy and Sea-Monkeys
In 1964, Joe Orlando became an editor for Creepy, a black-and-white horror comic magazine. He also drew for it. He was listed as providing "Story Ideas" for the first issue.
Joe also worked on toy designs and advertising. He helped make Harold von Braunhut's Sea-Monkeys very popular. Joe drew amazing ads that showed the Sea-Monkeys living in a magical underwater kingdom. His drawings made sales go way up! Later, a TV show called The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys used his character designs for their special effects.
His Time at DC Comics
In 1966, Joe Orlando and writer E. Nelson Bridwell created a funny superhero team called The Inferior Five. This team got its own comic series soon after. Joe also started the Swing with Scooter comic series.
After working for himself for 16 years, Joe was hired by DC Comics in 1968. He became an editor for many comic books, including Adventure Comics, House of Mystery, and Swamp Thing. He also wrote stories for some of these comics. Joe even came up with the names for the Weird War Tales and Weird Western Tales comics.
Creating New Heroes and Stories
As a vice president at DC, Joe led the company's Special Projects team. This team created art for T-shirts and other products that used DC characters. They also worked on trading cards and logos for places like Six Flags. Joe helped make sure DC characters looked consistent everywhere.
Finding New Artists
In the late 1960s, Joe hired Filipino artist Tony DeZuniga to work on DC's horror comics. In 1971, Joe and DC publisher Carmine Infantino traveled to the Philippines. They went there to find more talented artists. Many Filipino artists, like Alfredo Alcala and Nestor Redondo, later worked for DC Comics in the 1970s and 1980s.
Teaching and Special Projects
In the 1980s, Joe Orlando started teaching art at the School of Visual Arts. He taught there for many years.
In 1987, he drew a special picture for the famous comic book Watchmen. It was a page from a fake comic book inside Watchmen called Tales of the Black Freighter. The writer, Alan Moore, chose Joe because he thought Joe would be the perfect artist for a pirate comic in the Watchmen world.
Joe also worked with a letterer named Ben Oda. Joe would draw rough ideas for how words should look, and Oda would make them perfect. Later, Joe found a way to make these perfect words using a computer.
Becoming Associate Publisher of Mad
After the founder of Mad magazine, William Gaines, passed away in 1992, Mad became part of DC Comics. Joe Orlando then became the Associate Publisher of Mad magazine. He also helped create special Mad products for the new Warner Brothers Studio Store.
Joe retired from DC in 1996, but he still kept an office at Mad. He worked on ideas for Mad covers and other projects for two more years. He drew four more articles for Mad, with the last one appearing in 1997. Joe Orlando passed away in 1998. He was survived by his wife, Karin, and his four children.
Awards and Recognition
Joe Orlando received the Inkpot Award in 1980. He was also chosen for the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2007. This is a very special honor for comic artists. His work for EC's Weird Science comic was even listed in Entertainment Weekly as one of the "Sci-Fi Top 100" best works. He also appeared on a TV show called Horror Hall of Fame II in 1991.
Images for kids
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Joe Orlando in the early 1950s
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This Joe Orlando page with lettering by Todd Klein was created for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen (1987)
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Wally Wood's drawing of Joe Orlando (left) and Wood collaborating on a comics page in the early 1950s
