Rick’s Story: A Delusional Martyr And A Questionable Prophet Discuss Bad Women

Added: 2026-05-01

[00:00:08]Hello and welcome.

[00:00:12]Like Jacka's story, the title Rick's story has a dual meaning. It's about catching up with Rick and his place in this authoritarian world, and it's indicating the influential story he's writing. While guys was the introduction to the openly anti-feminist themes, Rick's story establishes the direction of the series and the elements that will dominate until the end. This is mainly established through extensive use of foreshadowing. That element not only complements the agenda, but it implies a high degree of intentionality moving forward. There is a well-thoughtout plan and that plan is to elaborate on the premise that the influence of women has a negative impact on society.

[00:00:51]First, let's break down the actual plot.

[00:00:59]In the guy's epilogue, Rick Nash, the former husband of Jacka, walks into the bar Sarabus tens. This Rick is older, filled out, and balding. He looks like he's aged at least 20 really bad years, even though in continuity, maybe a decade has passed. Regardless, Rick adheres to the stereotype of a middle-aged man established in Guys.

[00:01:21]Rick is trying to become a writer, but all he's become is an alcoholic with a martyr complex and some wild delusional visions. These visions are clearly the result of the trauma he's experienced, exacerbated by his drinking problem.

[00:01:34]Technically, Rick is no different than the other men Cereabus has encountered.

[00:01:38]He's bloated, runchy, and has nothing but contempt for women. But because Rick was married to Jacka, Cereabus feels disdained towards him, although he does empathize with his experience to a degree. After all, they do have common ground, mostly in disliking Jacka.

[00:01:54]Joanne appears and in a gross display of manipulation, she attempts to seduce Rick in front of Cereabus. Rick and Joanne plan a date, but she stands him up. Rick returns from being stood up with a head wound that is likely self-inflicted. More on that in a bit.

[00:02:09]Joanne continues to manipulate Rick.

[00:02:12]Serbus realizes that if they get together, he could leave the bar and travel home. So despite the toxic, clearly unhealthy relationship already building, Cerebus encourages Rick to continue seeing Joanne.

[00:02:24]Meanwhile, Rick goes deep into his madness and he writes about Cabus as if he's a prophet. Not a prophet of the established deity, Terrim, but of God, the Catholic God, that is. While clearly insane, Rick stabilizes with some divine intervention. He breaks things off with Joanne and then casts a spell to keep Sarabus in the bar. Rick then leaves.

[00:02:46]The creator, Dave Sim, arrives to deliver a package to Sarabus. This package contains Missy, Jacka's doll, the one Sarabus dropped a number of years ago. Dave disappears, and Jacka suddenly enters. The doll is an icebreaker, and Jaca and Cereabus resume where they left off years ago.

[00:03:05]Accidentally, Jacka breaks the spell Rick cast, giving Cabbus the ability to resume his life. In the final issue, the major characters from Guys Return.

[00:03:15]They've all gotten larger, uglier, and have become grotesque versions of their former selves, and they've abandoned their wives. Naturally, because men reset to a baseline state after a failed relationship, they try to resume their lives from the point just before they got married. So, these 50somes act like 20somes who lack any level of civility.

[00:03:36]Disgusted by their intrusion, Jacka leaves, and Cereabus is given the option to follow her or remain in place.

[00:03:43]Cerebus chooses to follow Jacka.

[00:03:50]The three main components being established are the character assassination of Jacka. It's best to save elaborating on that element until the next volume going home. That's where the character is eviscerated.

[00:04:02]Presumably with the anti-feminist stance the series takes. The only nuanced sympathetic female character had to be destroyed to support the narrative agenda.

[00:04:11]The phrase, "Go on, beat it, scram," is foreshadowing for going home. And the ensuing Jacka tearown.

[00:04:18]A related piece of foreshadowing is Jacka stating she needs to change her outfit every day. It's the first character beat to begin tailoring the character to fit the needs of the agenda.

[00:04:29]Next, it suggests that Sarabus will become a religious figure. Once again, this development is best save for a latter day's examination.

[00:04:37]One final piece of foreshadowing that reinforces the intent is Rick stating he and Sarabus will meet one more time.

[00:04:44]This is what I call special knowledge that the creator forces onto the character. There's no reason they should know what they know, but they do. On the surface, it could be taken as delusional and dismissed. Of course, I have the benefit of foresight, and I know this line is true.

[00:05:00]Finally, it begins the theme of influential writers that have been allegedly destroyed by the women in their lives. This is a major topic in the next volume, Going Home.

[00:05:11]Furthermore, Rick writes a piece that will be important during latter days.

[00:05:15]While he's not on the level of the two writers in Going Home, FScott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, he's still a broken man that writes something influential and pertinent to Sarabus' journey. One piece of foreshadowing and symbolism is Rick's head injury. This echoes Hemingway's fate in Going Home.

[00:05:32]Rick's severe alcoholism echoes Fitzgerald's.

[00:05:35]So, symbolically, Rick is a combination of both these prominent writers. Thus, the reason Rick is now a writer.

[00:05:42]All of this indicates the very intentional direction of the series.

[00:05:46]There's a specific plan and it's being executed.

[00:05:50]As the writer, Sim is ensuring everyone that nothing is accidental. Everything that happens next is very, very intentional.

[00:05:58]Furthermore, Sim himself steps in directly at a few points to ensure the story develops exactly as he needs it.

[00:06:04]He's not even hiding or covering his tracks. It's pretty obvious the writer is an active part of the narrative. They are merging and becoming indistinguishable.

[00:06:14]Again, Sim's direct involvement and the anti-feminist message he's projecting illustrates the art and the artist are no longer separate entities.

[00:06:22]Sim is making sure the story goes exactly as planned. The agenda is paramount.

[00:06:28]There is a narrative flow and an actual story being told, but it's all built around the message being delivered.

[00:06:39]We have to go back to Jacka's story and look at Rick when he was last seen.

[00:06:44]Previously, he was happy golucky and a touch lazy, but overall highly likable and positive. mainly he loved Jacka and he had infinite hope their life together would improve.

[00:06:56]However, Rick was very impressionable.

[00:06:58]Oscar, for example, easily swayed Rick to indulgences.

[00:07:02]Near the end, Thatcher convinces Rick that Jacka aborted their child. Within context, he was a prisoner for a number of weeks, and he was likely conditioned to see Jacka as a villain. So, despite being relatable and likable, he did have a weakness that gets exploited.

[00:07:19]It's no surprise that years later, he seems to exhibit nothing but contempt for his former wife and by extension all women. After all, to Rick, Jacka was near perfection. No other woman could possibly meet her standard. But she's still a female, therefore fundamentally flawed. By implication, all other women are even more inferior than his former lying piece of wife. If you remove any potential for character growth and then add Rick only encountering women that reinforces predisposition to believe they're all malignant then Rick's perspective in this graphic novel makes perfect sense. Otherwise, the level of contempt in Bile is disproportionate. It conforms to a writer's creative need rather than a sign of character development.

[00:08:04]The overall point is to show a once- lovable man completely broken by the presence of women. You're supposed to empathize with him and recognize that even the best, most well-defined female character, Chaka for example, is a malicious evil presence.

[00:08:19]It's saying even the best woman is the worst possible influence on a man.

[00:08:24]Rick's epiphany and the subsequent acceptance of Sarabus as a prophet is not completely out of character. As mentioned numerous times, Rick is impressionable and he's incapable of self-reflection.

[00:08:36]So he doesn't challenge the vision he has or wonder if his mental state is completely unsound. He merely accepts the vision as the literal gospel truth.

[00:08:46]He becomes an apostle and he documents his interactions with Sarabus.

[00:08:51]By any definition, Rick is insane. He may have moments of clarity, but the text that inspires the direction in latter days was written in a disassociated state. He was divorced from anything resembling reality.

[00:09:04]Considering that Rick's babbling becomes gospel later on, it gives the later religious direction an irrational foundation.

[00:09:11]Its intellectual value is highly questionable.

[00:09:15]Although it has to be noted after these moments of divine inspiration, Rick does even out. So, it does seem the implication is that religion does install reason and cure mental illness.

[00:09:26]I'm not sure if that's what Sim intended or whether that's an accidental message.

[00:09:30]Either way, this period of clarity wouldn't last and would almost certainly get worse.

[00:09:41]Joanne embodies pure negativity. Her portrayal is so beyond cartoonish that it's an unintentional parody of itself.

[00:09:48]Her motivations and goals are so transparent, they come off as disingenuous and insulting.

[00:09:54]Rick literally needs to be drunk and severely brain damaged. not to see she's leading him on because her manipulations would only be effective on children.

[00:10:03]Anyone beyond a toddler stage of development would roll their eyes and politely excuse themselves.

[00:10:10]I'm just going to come out and say it.

[00:10:11]This is some terrible writing. Joanne is not even a character at this point.

[00:10:16]She's simply the living personification of Sims disdain for women who have any agency.

[00:10:22]Once again, Rick falling for Joanne and Cereabus reacting to her manipulations undermines the alleged intellectual superiority of men. If all men were great pillars of intellect and not strictly ruled by emotions, or in this case, pure lust, Joanne would have been dismissed or deflected in a matter of moments. That's what someone with any level of intelligence would do.

[00:10:48]Sim meeting Cereabus in person is not as satisfying as one might hope. Along with giving Cereabus the Missy doll, he relates an anecdote about hanging out at a bar for a decade. This bar became like a prison to Sim, much like this tavern has been for Cereabus. It seems like it should be a sentimental moment or that it should be evoking some kind of response, either emotional or intellectual. But it doesn't. It seems distant and guarded. A moment like this should read like a revelation. One should gain some insight into something.

[00:11:20]But again, it doesn't. This is trivial, but a good detail. When the boxes displaying the issue number cascade from the ceiling, most are white and a few are black. The irregular black boxes are actually present on the published issues. I mean, you have to hand it to Sim for his attention to detail.

[00:11:39]Technically, this is the third direct encounter Sim has in this 12 issue story. Victor Davis, the narrator from Reeds, who was a Sim self-insert, encounters Rick. Sim as a burning bush DSX mocka, also communicates with Rick.

[00:11:54]And then there's his face-to-face conversation with Cereabus.

[00:11:58]All three encounters, while convenient for the plot, also indicate the art and the artist are inseparable. They are not distinct entities.

[00:12:06]Yes, I'm simply repeating a prior point, but with more examples.

[00:12:11]Something Sim will later address is accusations that Rick and Cereabus are versions of himself. Sim emphatically states he is neither character, which in my opinion is true. He wouldn't write himself as such a delusional, easily controlled character like Rick. Nor would he portray himself as a person guided by simplistic motivations like Cereabus. That's why it's easy to agree neither are Sim in disguise.

[00:12:36]That said, Rick in particular is merely a mouthpiece for the creator. He's less of a character and more of a puppet. And over time, Cereabus definitely adopts the views and beliefs of his creator.

[00:12:49]So, one can draw distinctions between the two characters and the writer, but the filter between the creative and the creation is rather broken.

[00:13:02]Behind the scenes, not much seemed to be going on. Presumably, letters were few and far between. The letters page, which used to be an extended part of each issue, barely shows up. However, whenever there's a letter that gives him the chance to defend his point of view, Sim would print and respond to those letters.

[00:13:21]Again, I can only presume that Sim either received a lot of hate mail that he ignored or letters dropped off because a good portion of the audience left the series. It could be a little bit of both. Notes from the president goes through a transformation.

[00:13:35]This was Sims public forum to make announcements and brag about his lifestyle. Starting in Guys, various excerpts from a variety of novels replace Sims usual mix of thoughts.

[00:13:46]Taken together, Sim seems to be lying low and focused on producing the comic.

[00:13:51]Considering this is now the late '9s and the comic book market had crashed, most energy was likely devoted to keeping the series going. All things considered, with the crash, Cereabus being a black and white title, and the anti-feminist message on full display, sales were not great.

[00:14:08]During this period, Cereabus was selling around 10,000 copies in issue, which is a third of its sales from about 3 years ago when the inflammatory read segment was published. For an independent title, losing 20,000 readers is a pretty big hit.

[00:14:29]Thank you for watching. I really get that line from Godfather 3 now. Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in. I never post a video thinking, "Boy, I hope this one does poorly. That way, I don't have to do another." But I was pretty certain guys might get a few thousand views, a number of dislikes, and sink from view. In the future, when I got requests for follow-ups, I could justify saying, "Well, no one watched the guy's video." I don't really have incentive to do more. Then guys got more views than any other video over the last like year. So here I am again. The people have spoken.

[00:15:08]Luckily, I'd written the script for guys and Rick's story concurrently. Although it needed a few editorial passes before it was ready. In my mind, it was a rainy day script. I'd probably make it 6 months from now during a week when I had nothing going on. Anyway, the interest seemed to be there and I had a script.

[00:15:26]So, I couldn't think of a reason not to do it this week. Of course, if this one tanks, well, then I can pull out my original justification, skip doing more for a little while, and like do an X-Men retrospective next so I don't have to think for a few weeks.

[00:15:40]Like, subscribe, engagement bait, blah blah blah. Thanks to all my fine supporters on Patreon and YouTube. The lovely algorithm pretty much ignores anything that isn't inflammatory ragebait. So, I appreciate you all for keeping the channel alive and allowing me the opportunity to cover weird, usually independent comics. Thank you again. Extra special thanks to Art Conway, Brian Deon, Chapel Pluto, Connor Gallas, Constant Disappointment Records, Corey Drew, Doug Everly, Edward Clayton, Andrew, Francis Da Cruz, Greenman, James Graham, Jeff Nicholson, John Gaunt, John Nyuks, John Woolham, Lucio Gonzalez, Matt Marino, Michael Shelton, Odin Ashcraftoft, Phil Sean, Plutoaucracy, Ruby St. Dennis, Russell Bull, Scott Smith, Shad Miller, Sicken, and Tom Granis. You were all justified and ancient.