Noah Van Sciver could almost fill up this Free Comic feature all my himself; dude is prolific. His latest comic is called His Last Comic and it’s running on FB, where it’s really hard to read. The first page is missing, and there are no tags – the link is to van Sciver’s photos page. It’s also running on Tumblr, but also no tags. But easier to read!

Despite making it nearly impossible to read, the subject matter is of some interest to faithful Beat readers, I believe. The subject is an aspiring comics creator who despairs of getting any recognition, while dreaming of buying an issue of Astro City and harkening back to the greats of the Chromium Age. Then he runs into an old woman in a dusty shop with a magic potion…

The story line is reminiscent of The Sculptor, Doctor Faustus and about a million other riffs…but it’s comics! The whining creator also recalls many indie comics favored punching bags, from Clowes’ Dan Pussey on, but with updated references. I’m not sure this person actually exists, but comics are about imagination. We’ve seen a lot of this before but not quite in this shape.