Don Orehek Cartoons: Hospital

Showing posts with label Hospital. Show all posts

230. Resident & Staff Physician

Oops! She shouldn't have said that! What would you reply to a friendly little hospital worker who wanted you to come back? The caption is a southern expression, but obviously it is well-known. Resident & Staff Physician "hails" from the New York metropolitan area. Don sold this cartoon (redrawn here) in July 1969.

143. Nursing Alternatives

Boiled liver? Don claims to like liver along with tripe, pork kidneys and assorted other oddities. Bet he wouldn't like the hospital version though.

The tear sheet we have of this cartoon credits Nursing Alternatives, Baltimore edition, April, 1984.

115. You've Got Me in Stitches

You've Got Me in Stitches was published in 1973. This appropriate title for medical cartoons is another book edited by Lawrence Lariar. The front inside jacket proclaims: "This manual of medical mirth, first published two decades ago, has been updated to include the freshest and funniest stock of hospital humor, more than one hundred cartoons, many new, some old favorites, all guaranteed to provide hours of enjoyment. . . "

The first version was published in 1954 when Don's career was barely five years old. In the 1973 version he has eight cartoons. Of course! The front cover proclaims: "A new collection of the funniest hospital cartoons by the the nation's foremost comic artists."

51. Florida Nursing News, Nov. 21, 1981

Here's another medical publication that appreciated cartoons. We don't know when they ceased publication (think they did), but seems like Florida could still use nursing news today.

Wonder who smuggled in the gong!

Be sure to notice the expression on the roommate! Do you blame him?

9. Medical Economics

There were many specialized markets for cartoonists when magazines were in their heyday. Medical magazines are just one example. Specialized or not, we can all laugh at the humor in any situation. This cartoon from Medical Economics was printed in 1982.

There's a story here!

This picture was taken a few years ago during a big snow storm. It's definitely appropriate for today's Long Island weather.
Bogey wanted to go outside so badly he drove us nuts! The problem was, the snow was piled so high we couldn't open the sliding door he usually used, so finally we let him out the front door. He jumped off the porch and immediately sank up to his nose. He literally swam (what a comical sight) through the snow around the house to the back deck where the sliding door is located. Now he wanted to come in very badly. We still couldn't open the slider, so he jumped up to the deck railing to holler at the window, got his picture taken, then we opened the window and a happy and wiser cat climbed in!

How Many Cartoons and Illustrations?

Thanks to those who guessed how many cartoons Don has sold in his career -- so far. Our estimate is 12,000 +. Hard to believe, isn't it? Our basis for this number is a written record of sales from August 1966 (when wife Suzy started working for Don) through December 1994. This record is a simple list of sales on three-hole notebook paper. It is 253 pages with 25 lines per page. That's 6,325 sales. Add to that multiple-drawings in sales to magazines like Cracked, about 30 drawings for each of 32 jokes books, and the other 32 years before and after the list, and--well--we stopped counting at 12,000.

The text above reads:

America's National Cartoonists Society poll their entire membership of leading cartoonists throughout the United States for their pick of the best of the year. This year, Don Orehek, was presented with a plaque for the "Best Magazine Gag Cartoonist".Don is one of our major contributors to Cartoons & Gags, Laugh Parade, Best Cartoons, Cartoon Capers, and Cartoon Laughs. A sample of his work is on the following pages. He loves to draw, and his drawing shows a love for old times, new times, and wild times.Don and his wife, Suzanne, and their children, Errol and Holly, live in Port Washington, New York.Love to draw and your drawing draws love.
Congratulations, Don
-- Robert Mende

Don's Trash Can

Don has had the same plastic trash can for more than 40 years. At some point he started putting any stickers on it that came his way. Now we suspect the stickers are the only thing holding it together. There also are a few bumper stickers in there. Remember how popular they were in the 70s? About 1975 we had a bumper sticker made up that said "READ CARTOONS." It stayed on our old 1966 Chevy Belair until it was towed away. (Trash can stickers may, but do not necessarily, reflect the opinions of the artist or his family.)