Doc Wirtham's Greatest Hit

Hey! Remember Oisif Egaux?

Odds are, most folks don't. But most likely never saw his work...

It's definitely distinctively different than most...

Okay - how about Clifford Neal? Is that name any more familiar?

Back when the underground comix market had dropped off to almost nothing, and before the independent market opened up, Cliff Neal stepped up to provide a unique open forum comic. Starting in 1976, he published a confusing number of issues (let's call it 10) of Dr. Wirtham's Comix & Stories -

As you might have already deduced, that's Oisif Egeaux's work on the cover of #2 (and #1, but i like #2 better). The first issue of Dr. Wirtham's C&S was completely the work of Egaux (pronounced Ego, appropriately enough in that case). This might not be too surprising, given that Clifford Neal and Oisif Egeaux are the same person.

Having produced the first issue solo, he ran this editorial at the opening of the first issue:

And how did that call for folks to join him work out?
Well - take a look at the Table Of Contents from the following issue:

I'd say it worked out Not Damned Bad. And i think that's the earliest work i've seen from Will Muegniot.

By a few issues later...

I used this one so you could see the Editorial Statement that ran with it.
Other contributors over the run of the book included Gene Day, Peter Bagge, Terry Beatty, and Joe Zabel. It's an oddly unique title, and we'll come back and look at some of their work another day. Today, let's look more at Cliff/Oisif's art and stories from the book.

all art by Oisif Egaux/Clifford Neal for Dr. Wirtham's Comix & Stories (1976-1987)