Newsletter

Dec. 23, 1998--Joe Orlando, legendary comic book artist and editor, died today in Manhattan at the age of 71.

Orlando was born in Bari, Italy on April 4, 1927, and came to New York two years later. He studied at the High School of Industrial Art and the Art Students League, and went on to a diverse career as a writer, artist, editor and teacher.

After stenciling boxcars as a soldier in post-war Germany, Orlando began his career in the medium he loved best, comics, at the Lloyd Jacquet Studio, an enterprise that outsourced comic strips for publishers, and worked on titles including the Catholic publication Treasure Chest . He later assisted Wally Wood, a legendary science-fiction comics artist, and then began working independently.

Orlando achieved his first fame as one of the star artists of the E.C. Comics science fiction and horror line, including key contributions to Tales From The Crypt. His science fiction work was recently recognized in Entertainment Weekly as one of "Sci-Fi's Top 100." At E.C. he became a close friend of publisher William M. Gaines, and their collaboration continued until Gaines' death four decades later. Orlando's most important artwork was "Judgment Day," a critically acclaimed parable of racial justice published in 1953.

When the horror comics were pushed off the market in response to public concerns about juvenile delinquency, Orlando shifted to Gaines' new effort, MAD Magazine. Orlando illustrated classic MAD features including the recurring feature "Scenes We'd Like To See" and a parody of Reader's Digest , "Reader's Disgust."

During his career as an artist, Orlando also contributed covers to magazines including Newsweek and National Lampoon, as well as numerous stories for the latter. He illustrated children's books, comics as diverse as Classics Illustrated and his own quirky creation for DC, The Inferior Five, and wrote the newspaper strip Little Orphan Annie.

Orlando took on the role of editor in 1968, joining DC Comics to revive the horror comics genre in the guise of gentler "mystery" comics. He created the host characters for the line, which included drawing inspiration from the Bible for the modern-day character Cain, the storyteller at The House Of Mystery. During this period, Orlando's work earned him numerous awards, and he discovered a generation of significant new writers and artists for comics. His single most enduring contribution was Swamp Thing, a character created under his editorship by two of his young proteges, Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Swamp Thing has gone on to fame in film, television, and cartoons.

Over his 30 years with DC, Orlando became the company's Vice President & Editorial Director, and became the Associate Publisher of MAD Magazine when it came under DC's purview after William M. Gaines' death. He taught for many years at the School of Visual Arts; as an educator and an editor, developing new creative talents was one of his deepest passions.

A memorial service will be held by DC Comics at a later date.