Don Orehek
Encyclopedia
Don Orehek is an American freelance cartoonist
who has contributed gag cartoon
s to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines and books. On more obscure publications, he has used several pseudonyms, including Sam de Sade, Di Benvenuto and Kobasa.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Orehek attended the High School of Industrial Arts
, spent four years in the Navy and then studied cartooning and illustration at the School of Visual Arts
.
His work has appeared in Adam, Army Laughs, The Christian Science Monitor
, Cosmopolitan
, Cracked, Good Housekeeping
, Ladies' Home Journal
, Look
, Modern Maturity, Playboy
, The Saturday Evening Post
and other publications, including one-shot magazines and specialized cartoon magazines, such as Prize Cartoons.
's This Funny World single-panel series, and he also drew many cartoons for King Features
' Laff-A-Day.
humor and joke books, beginning with Bob Vlasic's 101 Pickle Jokes in 1974. This was followed by The Official Name Callers' Book, The Laugh-a-Minute Joke Book (1989) and many more. His work has been reprinted in numerous cartoon collections, such as Sam Gross
' Movies Movies Movies (Harper & Row. 1989).
Based on 28 years of recorded sales, Orehek and his wife Suzanne calculated that he had sold over 12,000 cartoons during his lengthy career:
's Gag Cartoon Award (1972, 1982, 1984, 1985), and he received awards twice at Montreal's Man and His World exhibition.
His interest in caricatures was solidified in 1966 with a trip to Vietnam under the auspices of the National Cartoonists Society and the U.S. Department of Defense. Shortly after returning, Orehek and his fellow cartoonists were invited to the White House where they were personally thanked by President Lyndon Johnson for entertaining American and Vietnamese troops.
The Oreheks live in Port Washington, New York
on Long Island
.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
who has contributed gag cartoon
Gag cartoon
A gag cartoon is most often a single-panel cartoon, usually including a hand-lettered or typeset caption beneath the drawing. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption...
s to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines and books. On more obscure publications, he has used several pseudonyms, including Sam de Sade, Di Benvenuto and Kobasa.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Orehek attended the High School of Industrial Arts
High School of Art and Design
The High School of Art and Design is a Career and Technical Education high school located at 1075 Second Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets in Manhattan, New York City, New York.It is operated by the New York City Department of Education...
, spent four years in the Navy and then studied cartooning and illustration at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
.
His work has appeared in Adam, Army Laughs, The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, Cracked, Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
, Ladies' Home Journal
Ladies' Home Journal
Ladies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...
, Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
, Modern Maturity, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
and other publications, including one-shot magazines and specialized cartoon magazines, such as Prize Cartoons.
Syndication
Orehek was a major contributor to the McNaught SyndicateMcNaught Syndicate
The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the Dear Abby letters section and comic strips, including Joe Palooka and...
's This Funny World single-panel series, and he also drew many cartoons for King Features
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
' Laff-A-Day.
Books
He has illustrated more than 30 paperbackPaperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
humor and joke books, beginning with Bob Vlasic's 101 Pickle Jokes in 1974. This was followed by The Official Name Callers' Book, The Laugh-a-Minute Joke Book (1989) and many more. His work has been reprinted in numerous cartoon collections, such as Sam Gross
Sam Gross
Sam Gross is an American cartoonist. He began cartooning in 1962.His cartoons have appeared in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping.He was cartoon editor for National Lampoon and Parents Magazine...
' Movies Movies Movies (Harper & Row. 1989).
Based on 28 years of recorded sales, Orehek and his wife Suzanne calculated that he had sold over 12,000 cartoons during his lengthy career:
- 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 joke books, and the other 32 years before and after the list, and--well--we stopped counting at 12,000.
Awards
He is a four-time winner of the National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
's Gag Cartoon Award (1972, 1982, 1984, 1985), and he received awards twice at Montreal's Man and His World exhibition.
His interest in caricatures was solidified in 1966 with a trip to Vietnam under the auspices of the National Cartoonists Society and the U.S. Department of Defense. Shortly after returning, Orehek and his fellow cartoonists were invited to the White House where they were personally thanked by President Lyndon Johnson for entertaining American and Vietnamese troops.
The Oreheks live in Port Washington, New York
Port Washington, New York
Port Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the community population was 15,846....
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
.