Cartoon by Don Orehek, revised version of a 1961 cartoon originally printed in American Legion Magazine. This gag was Orehek's favorite cartoon, especially since it made the editor of American Legion Magazine burst out laughing.
Don Orehek was an American gag cartoonist and comic artist. He drew both family friendly gags - notably for joke books - and more naughty erotic jokes, for instance for Playboy. Although mostly known as a one-panel cartoonist, Orehek also created humor comics throughout his long career. He was best known for his work in the satirical magazine Cracked, where his signature feature was 'Shut-Ups' (1977-2000). Orehek also signed his work with the pseudonyms Nod Kehero, Pronto Don, Sam de Sade, Di Benevenuto and Kobasa.
Early life
Donald A. Orehek was born in 1928 in Brooklyn, New York City. His father was a musician of Slovenian descent. The boy often drew in class and was frequently punished for not paying attention. He attended the local High School of Industrial Arts. On 9 August 1945, on his 17th birthday, Orehek enlisted in the U.S. Navy. During his military service, he worked for the weekly base newspaper St. Johns Inlander, creating a comic series titled 'Cyphers', starring a navy veteran who's so old that he's a senior citizen. The feisty old man is always drunk and getting into trouble, but for some reason he's never discharged from the military. Back in civilian life by 1949, Orehek studied at the School of Visual Arts, where he graduated in 1952. While still a student in 1950, he sold his first cartoon. By the time he left the academy, he became a gag cartoonist for Crestwood Publications and its Prize imprint.
'Cyphers'.
Among Orehek's favorite cartoonists were Brant Parker, Eldon Dedini and later Brian Crane. Orehek also learned a lot about cartooning from Lawrence Lariar's instruction manual 'Cartooning For Everybody' (Crown Publishing, 1941). Orehek was additionally active as a street painter, selling original paintings to passersby in Greenwich Village. Years later, he learned that he had sold one of his artworks to future cartoonist John Reiner (known for 'The Lockhorns'). From 1977 on, Orehek also taught after-school and Saturday cartooning classes for children at the New York elementary schools Manhasset's Shelter Rock on Long Island, Glenwood Landing at Glen Head, and Sea Cliff. The classes were sponsored by the Creative Arts Workshop of Port Washington.
Comic strip for Original Cartoons (November 1966).
Cartooning career
From 1949 until deep into the 2010s, Orehek made hundreds of one-panel cartoons and gag comics. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was present in Army Fun, Army Laughs, Broadway Laughs and Dolls & Gags, published by Crestwood. At Dearfield Publishing, his cartoons were featured in Nifty, while at Magna Publications they could be found in Pack O' Fun. Harvey Comics ran some in Army & Navy Fun Parade, while Dell printed a few in For Laughin' Out Loud. In 1961, Orehek became one of the house cartoonists of The Saturday Evening Post. His daily gags ran in the newspaper cartoon section 'Laff-a-Day', produced by King Features Syndicate. Orehek came up with most of the jokes himself, but also hired professional gag writers. According to Mike Lynch, Orehek once told him a prison inmate wrote gags for him. One time Orehek drew a gag about a prisoner, using his writer's prison inmate number as an inside joke. His jailed correspondent didn't find this funny and instantly terminated their professional relationship.
Two cartoons from American Weekly, 11 July 1965.
In 1966, publisher Humor-Vision issued two short-lived thematic comic magazines, Pow Magazine (August-November 1966) and Monster Howls (December 1966). Some cartoons by Orehek were featured in their pages. In Monster Howls, he even received his own column, 'The Eerie World of Don Herek'. The horror-themed cartoons from the latter magazine were later reprinted in Cracked. Over the years, Orehek's cartoons also ran in America's Legion Magazine, American Weekly, Broadway Laughs, Cartoon Capers, Cavalcade, Cavalier, The Christian Science Monitor, College Laughs, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal Diet Club, Humorama, Leatherneck, Look, McCall's, Military Life, Modern Maturity, National Lampoon, Saturday Review and True Adventure. In 1975-1976, he made cartoons for a magazine for employees of Japan Airlines, in a section titled 'jaLaughs'.
Cartoon for 'jaLaughs' (July 1975).
Cracked
Throughout his career, Orehek contributed to various satirical comic magazines that tried to cash in on the success of Mad Magazine: Crazy, Panic, Sick, Zany and the longest-lasting of all, Cracked. He appeared in Cracked's very first issue (February-March 1958). Initially appearing on an irregular basis in its pages, Orehek became a mainstay in nearly every issue from December 1963 on until slowing down his production in the early 2000s. His cartoons were sometimes featured in the Cracked's Cracks section, where various thematically unrelated one-panel cartoons by different artists were grouped together. In issue #109 (July 1973) he was honored with his very own two-page cartoon column, 'The World of Mr. Orehek'. The same happened in issue #221 (August 1986), #229 (August 1987) and #239 (October 1988), when his horror-themed cartoons received the tongue-in-cheek title 'Don Orehek's Horrible Humor'. In the 1990s, Orehek was one of the few Cracked cartoonists, alongside Don Martin, to be specifically named in page headers, with 'Orehek at Large' being the most recurring title.
'Shut Up', Cracked.
Most of Don Orehek's comics for Cracked were straightforward gags with slice-of-life satire. He was frequently assigned to make huge crowd drawings, spread over two pages in the center spread of issues. Bob Sproul was one of his regular scriptwriters for these tasks, but otherwise Orehek received a lot of creative freedom. As an inside joke, he often gave himself a cameo as background character.
Orehek's best-known series in Cracked was the 'Shut-Ups' feature, of which the first episode appeared in issue #145 (October 1977). Best described as Cracked's answer to Al Jaffee's similar 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions', it featured people saying something without thinking it through, whereupon another character would tell them to "Shut Up" and then give a sarcastic reply. In some gags, the punchline deliverer merely points out what the real situation is, as opposed to the foolish observation by their sidekick. 'Shut-Ups' was popular with readers and was featured in nearly every issue until the final episode in issue #350 (December 2000). A compilation was released in the book 'The Cracked Book of Shut Ups' (Globe Communications, July 1987).
In issues #210 (March 1985) and #211 (May 1985), Orehek also drew a short-lived gag series, 'Hudd and Dini'. Named after famed escape artist Harry Houdini, Hudd and Dini are two prisoners who try to escape from jail in each gag, but fail every time.
"Remember the time I blew your house down for the insurance?" (cartoon for Playboy).
Playboy
Orehek was also a productive cartoonist for Hugh Hefner's men's magazine Playboy, drawing erotic cartoons. Interviewed in The Cartoon!st (January-February 2009), Orehek claimed he was "the most creative" in the morning and while "doing girly gags for Playboy". He also added that he would like to be remembered for "drawing sexy girls". Apart from Playboy, his erotic cartoons also ran in rival magazines Gent and Penthouse.
Two-panel cartoon for Humorama (1960).
Graphic contributions
Between April 1957 and April 1965, Orehek livened up the cover of the 'College Laughs' cartoon compilation books, published by Candar Publishing, the same company that also published Cracked Magazine. For this publisher, he also illustrated the covers of the book series 'French Cartoon and Cuties' (February 1957–June 1965), poking fun at French stereotypes, with risqué jokes. His earliest joke book illustration work was done for Bob Vlasik's '101 Pickle Jokes' (Pyramid Communications, 1974). A comic book narrative can be found in Bart Andrews and Mary McCartney's 'Yankee Doodle Dandies: A Star-Spangled Satire' (Signet, 1976). For writer Gary Poole, he livened up the humor books 'Gag Galaxy: Outer Space Jokes and Riddles' (Tempo, 1980), 'Tales of the Spooky Natural and Vampire Jokes' (Tempo, 1980), 'In My Opinion' (Tempo, 1980) and 'Who's Zoo: Animal Jokes and Riddles' (Tempo, 1982).
Orehek was especially prolific for the children's book publishing company Scholastic. With Lisa Eisenberg and Katy Hall as writers, he illustrated the books '101 Rock 'n Roll Jokes and Riddles' (1989), '101 Bossy Cow Jokes' (1989), '101 Hopelessly Hilarious Jokes' (1990) and '101 Ghost Jokes' (1996). In collaboration with writer Melvin Berger, he drew '101 Spooky Halloween Jokes' (1993), '101 Wacky State Jokes' (1991) and '101 Wacky Camping Jokes' (1992). He also livened up Victoria Hartman's 'The Silly Joke Book' (1987), Sonia Black, Pat Brigandi and Judith Bauer Stamper's '101 Super Sports Jokes' (Scholastic, 1988), Stephanie Calmenson's '101 Silly Summertime Jokes' (Scholastic, 1989), R.L. Stine's '101 School Cafetaria Jokes' (Scholastic, 1990), Jeff Parietti's '101 Wacky Sports Quotes' (1991), Dick Hyman's 'More Crazy Laws' (Scholastic, 1992), Pat Brigandi's 'The Laugh-A-Minute Joke Book' (Scholastic, 1989) and '101 Valentine Jokes' (Scholastic, 1994), Jovial Bob Stine's '101 Wacky Kid Jokes' (Scholastic, 1988) and '101 School Cafetaria Jokes' (1990), Suzanne Lord's '101 Thanksgiving Knock-Knock, Jokes, and Riddle' (Scholastic, 1993). He illustrated the cover of Sue Macy's 'Mad Math' (Scholastic, November 1987), a book with math puzzles.
In 1981, Orehek designed advertising art to promote the Nassau Trust bank, and also provided art for Albert & Son, Inc. candy boxes. In 1982 Orehek drew a menu booklet starring Looney Tunes characters for a restaurant named Gadgets. The booklet, titled 'Gadgets - The Great Food & Game Invention', was produced for Design Unlimited Culinary Concepts and featured a Looney Tunes comic on the front, advertising the restaurant.
'Looney Tunes' strip for the Gadgets restaurant.
Recognition
In August 1966, Orehek and two other cartoonists, Jack Rosen and Jon Nielson, visited Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War. They entertained hospitalized U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers with caricatures and chalk talks at the instigation of 'Amy' cartoonist and air force colonel Jack Tippit. Orehek and Rosen also visited Clark Air Force Base in The Philippines. After returning home, they were received at the White House, where U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson personally thanked them for their patriotic service, entertaining the troops.
Orehek won the "Gag Cartoon Award" on behalf of the National Cartoonists Society, up to four times, namely in 1972, 1982, 1984 and 1985. At the Pavilion of Humor, Man and His World Exhibition, he received awards twice.
'Frankenstein and the Sexy Gal' (Cartoon Capers, January 1974).
Final years and death
In July 2007, Don Orehek established his own blog. His wife took the initiative, especially to find out just how many cartoons her husband had made during his lifetime and for which clients. They were able to make a list of over 100 different magazines, books and other advertising commissions. Donald Orehek died in late 2022, at age 94.
Self-portrait.