The Depressing Life of a Washed-Up Rock Star: Catch Up on Our New Comic Strip

For the past few months, we've been working on a comic strip story here and in the pages of Westword titled "Rufus Baxter: The Oldest Unknown Rock Star." The story took a leap forward with the full-page installment found in this week's issue of the newspaper, and when it is...

By Noah Van Sciver

November 5, 2014

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For the past few months, we've been working on a comic strip story here and in the pages of Westword titled "Rufus Baxter: The Oldest Unknown Rock Star." The story took a leap forward with the full-page installment found in this week's issue of the newspaper, and when it is finished, it will be the ultimate road-trip story: A sprawling tale of a musician driving through the country on a tour of his past, trying to figure out just what went wrong in his life. Presented here is the story so far (click on any of the comics to see more from that week's strip).

When we meet up with Rufus he's an older man still living the life of an up and coming rocker. He plays around town anywhere that he can.

Later on, unfortunately, our man is kicked out of his girlfriend's home...

And he has to sleep in his car, where he is pestered by passersby...

In his car he dreams of his past. His glory days when he was in a band that could have been the next Scorpion or Poison.

Rufus awakes to his cold reality...

With his new goal our hero sets off on his journey, stopping only to play on the streets for gas money.

And to use the bathroom...

Hoping to do some soul-searching he stops his car in the desert to look for Peyote on a Native American reservation...

After explaining himself, he is taken to a cave with a pouch and given instructions from the chief...

Under the influence of the drug Rufus is transported back to the past where he sees Becky, a young lady he once was in love with...

Soon the drugs begin to intensify...

And you can see what happened in this week's installment here. Stay tuned every week to see what happens as our story continues.

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Noah Van Sciver's work has appeared in Mad, The Best American Comics, The Believer, Wired, Vice and The Stranger, as well as countless graphic anthologies.

Contact: Noah Van Sciver