Don Orehek Cartoons

Saturday Evening Post - Cartoon #16 & Cartoon #17

It's been too long since the last posting, so we'll add two Saturday Evening Post cartoons here.

This one was in the March 23, 1963 issue. (Caption: "I hate it when it's high tide.") No date.

Saturday Evening Post - Cartoon #15

No caption needed on this Saturday Evening Post gag by Don published in the July 31, 1965 issue.. Can you find his signature?

Saturday Evening Post - Cartoon #14

Now if you were this young lady or even Daddy what would you do next? Maybe she should face the other way, and he should dive under the table.

This cartoon appeared in Saturday Evening Post though it could just as well have been bought by Cosmopolitan or Playboy. Publication date is probably sometime in the late 1960s.

Saturday Evening Post - Cartoon #13

Here's another Saturday Evening Post cartoon from the good old days. This one from Don was published in the October 22, 1966 issue. Today the hot dog vendors are still going strong - too bad we can't say the same for the magazine!

Saturday Evening Post - Cartoon #12

Some gags insist on making the reader imagine what happens next! Isn't this one of those?
No date for this Saturday Evening Post cartoon, but we can tell by the style that it's early 1960s.

Old and New: An Interesting Perspective

Here is one of Don's favorite cartoons. He sold it so long long ago that his style has changed quite a bit, and he says he doesn't like the old style, so he redrew the cartoon - just because he likes the gag. The original was bought by American Legion Magazine and published in the September 1961 issue. Don tells that the editor burst out laughing when he saw the cartoon. As you may know editors tend not to laugh out loud - even if they love a gag - a result of looking at so many cartoons!
Another story about this gag happened in the Colosseum in Rome. Don and wife Suzy we on the upper level looking at the massive arena and imaging what went on there in ancient times. A young couple approached Don asking him to take their picture with the Colosseum in the background. Don said Suzy is the photographer in the family. The couple posed and just as Suzy took the picture Don said "Say mozzarella!" The couple, like the editor, burst out laughing. The result was a great picture!

Note the spelling of mozzarella in the original cartoon. Yes, that's the way it was printed.

Saturday Evening Post - Cartoon #11

Don has a rather thick folder containing clips of cartoons published by The Saturday Evening Post. We've already posted ten from that well-known magazine at various times beginning in June 2009. So almost two years later we have decided it's time to show some more SEP cartoons from the 1960s and 70s. For those of you too young to remember what the cartoon business was like way back then, they will give you an idea. Some of the old subjects are taboo today though some are still with us. Either way, we hope they make you laugh.

The cartoon posted here was published sometime in the 1960s.

266. Gadgets - The Great Food & Game Invention

(Click on image to enlarge.)

It's very unlikely that anyone would recognize these pages from a restaurant menu as Don's work. They are. Honest! He drew the Looney characters for a booklet called Gadgets - The Great Food & Game Invention created by Design Unlimited Culinary Concepts. It seems that "Gadgets" was the name of the establishment. The back cover offers the eatery as a location for Sunday brunch, birthday parties or even Sweet 16's, office parties and showers. Finally it says "Before You Go ... Don't forget to watch our show! Performances by Bugs Bunny and the gang change frequently, and you're sure to want an encore!" © Warner Bros. Inc. 1982.

Leatherneck - Magazine of the Marines

There are still a few print magazines out there that buy cartoons. Leatherneck is one of them. This cartoon of Don's appeared in the February 2011 issue. Thank you, Marines! For buying cartoons and for everything else you do!

Another cartoon from Leatherneck is post #15 in this blog.

Caption: "Psst. . .don't argue with him. Let him think he's boss."

265. Ladies' Home Journal Diet Club

Found another publication in which Don's cartoons were published. As they say in TV land, it's a spin off. The magazine was titled Ladies' Home Journal Diet Club. So naturally the cartoons had to do with women and dieting. We can't say how long this magazine lasted, not too long we suspect. Both cartoons Don sold to it were printed in 1970. This one is from the January 1970 issue.

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 18

One more cartoon from Dell's 1000 Jokes - for now! Get the feeling that Don did 1000 jokes for Dell?

We're not venturing away from Dell because we need to slow down or speed up. Just thought we'd show some of Don's creations from a different publication for a while.

We don't have the date this cartoon appeared though it must have been in the sixties like a lot of the others Dell gags we've shown.

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 17

Here in New York we had a hint of spring last Friday when the temperature hovered just below 70 degrees. It reminds us that spring is truly right around the corner, and with it lemonade stands will pop up in a lot of neighborhoods though the prices will definitely be higher than when Don did this cartoon for Dell's 1000 Jokes, published in August 1968.

Caption: "The Lo-cal is cheaper because there's no sugar in it!"

Don and Suzy had an experience with "Lo-cal" lemonade in Udine, Italy in 1974. At a breakfast bar in the hotel where they were staying a lot of dapper Italian men were ordering lemon juice. Suzy thought she would try one. The only problem was that she hadn't noticed the Italians dumping tons of sugar into their glasses. She took a big swallow, and - well - guess she looked like the man in Don's cartoon!

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 16

Don doesn't play Bridge but his wife does, so of course it's the woman with the cast on her foot!
This one was printed by Dell in 1000 Jokes in the November 1968 issue.

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 15

Caption: "Dammit, Ma . . . sit still!"
So, do you think Whistler talked to his mother like that? Who knows! Anyway, surely she has things to do -- baking pies, laundry, scrubbing, washing sonny's paint brushes -- so wouldn't it be reasonable for her to wiggle!
Published in Dell's 1000 Jokes, August 1967.

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 14

Now that the groundhog has had his say, we'll look forward to baseball spring training.
Do notice that no team is mentioned in this cartoon of Don's printed in the November 1967 issue of Dell's 1000 Jokes. Isn't he tactful!

264. 101 Rock 'n' Roll Jokes and Riddles

Here's another joke book Don illustrated for Scholastic, Inc. This one in 1989. We can't help commenting that that Rock 'n' Roll is here to stay! It can even withstand the ribbing it gets in a book like 101 Rock 'n' Roll Jokes and Riddles.

263. 101 Wacky Sports Quotes

Not to be confused with 101 Super Sports Jokes (posting # 250, Sept. 19, 2010). Quotes can, of course, be funny, too. Don's cover illustration conjures up all kinds of crazy possibilities - you'll have to find a copy of the book for an explanation. (We don't have one, a copy that is.)

Here's a "wacky quote" from the artist himself who is only a sports fan by coercion. He knows such a little bit about football that he asked how many halves there are! (Any similarity to the blurb on the back cover is purely coincidental.)

Scholastic, Inc. published this book in 1991.

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 13

Wow, is the groom getting off to a bad start or what?
As they say, if it can happen it will happen. So if you - or anyone you know - fell asleep and missed a date at the altar, it would be interesting to let us know about it.

This cartoon was published in Dell's 1000 Jokes in its November 1967 issue.

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 12

Here's another one that Dell's 1000 Jokes published in its May 1967 issue. It's a logical gag, isn't it?

1000 Jokes - Cartoon # 11

1000 Jokes published this Orehek cartoon in its May 1967 issue. Probably readers in that year thought the guy wanted to be rescured from his eagle kidnapper. If the gag were published today, we'd say he got held up at security and the eagle is helping him catch up to the plane he missed!

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.)