Friday, December 15, 2023
Obscurity of the Day: Senator Caucus
Politicians are such a deep and rich vein of comedy that it's surprising how relatively few of them have starred in their own features. They tend to be secondary characters, like Senator Belfry in Shoe, Senator Snort in Grin and Bear It and a whole parade of demagogues in strips like Pogo and Doonesbury. Maybe newspaper readers, faced with the horrors of the front page, aren't really happy for politicians to be the stars on the comics page, too.
Senator Caucus tried to buck that tradition by having a blowhard corrupt politician as the star of a daily panel, which debuted on October 6 1958* through the auspices of General Features. The strip was drawn by Pete Wyma and gags were supplied by George Levine. For both creators this was to be their first and last syndicated feature. Of Levine I know nothing, but Wyma was a prolific gag cartoonist, specializing in risque to outright adult material. He was also a prolific postcard cartoonist in the 60's. When the feature began Wyma adopted a very generic-looking cartooning approach, but during the 60s he developed a much lusher style that really sets him apart from the run of the mill.
Levine didn't last long as collaborator. He seems to have bowed out at the end of the first year, last being credited on October 17 1959. After that Wyma took a solo byline for the most part, but often shared credit in the panel itself with gag writers who went by "VTM" and "Mac Saveny".
Senator Caucus was undeniably well done but it never really caught on. Whether that is because of the aforementioned allergic reaction of newspaper readers, or because of the weak sales ability of General Features, I dunno. But since General Features didn't really have any blockbuster properties, they were happy to keep Senator Caucus going for a full decade even with his short list of client papers. The feature seems to have ended on November 2 1968**.
* Source: Washington Star
** Source:Paterson News.
Labels: Obscurities
