Issue 220
From CerebusWiki
| July 1997: Rick's Story 1 | |
| |
| Issue 220 | |
| President | Dave Sim |
| Vice-President | Gerhard |
| Administrative Assistant | Carol West |
| Proofreading | Diana Schutz |
| Rick's Story | |
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Contents |
Issue Summary
Rick is telling Cerebus about a conversation he had with someone about women at a bar they were at. He saids that Jaka showed up to the bar where his friend was drinking with him, and Jaka starts talking in Lower Feldan to Rick's friend because Rick told her that Viktor spoke it. Rick says Viktor took Jaka's hand and said ten words in Lower Feldan. Jaka then poured his drink on him, turned to Rick, said 'Rick?' and left. Rick says he got up and ran after her.
After telling Cerebus that part of the story, Rick flips thru a book from which we see some excerpts. It is Rick's Story, his answer to Oscar's Daughter of Palnu. One of those excerpts is shown done in the Jaka's Story style of a picture with text beside it. Rick goes to Viktor the next night and asks him what he said to Jaka. Viktor asks Rick if he asked Jaka, to which Rick responds no. Viktor says that Rick really doesn't want to know then. Rick then goes to hit him, but Viktor just grabs his fist, twists it slightly holding Rick off balance and tells Rick he is out of his league with Viktor, and out of his league with Jaka. Viktor tells Rick that as long as he is happy for the rest of his life he has Jaka for as long as he wants her. Viktor continues on saying that if Rick screws up and Jaka decides to leave him, avoid bars and stay away from booze as some can handle it and some can't, and Viktor thinks Rick can't. Rick says he never forgot the advice Viktor gave him.
Cerebus looks at Rick and at the beer Rick is holding and Rick just laughs saying "I said I never forgot his advice. . .I didn't say I followed it."
Rick and Cerebus discuss what Rick puts in his novel that gets Cirinist approval: lies. We see Rick's "drinking fast." After this drinking fast demonstration, Rick tells Cerebus about how he thinks women will swoon all over him at book signings after his story is published, how he'll invite one to his room and faster then he can say deluxe accommodation "she'll be bobbin on bobo." Rick then sees Cerebus as a demon and himself as a heavenly martyr. Rick laughs that a "bartender-pope" is funny. Cerebus tries to laugh it off, but Rick continues on, and Cerebus gets madder and madder.
A glass falls, and Rick gets a questioning look on his face and says Something Fell. Cerebus gasps and we see an echo of the female Pontiff figure and a burning Suenteus Po. Rick says "th' truth hurtz, anh?" as he sees Cerebus gasping and clutching his chest. He chides Cerebus that Cerebus can beat him up, but he can't beat up the truth. Rick says if he is as mad as Viktor he can use a knife like Viktor did. Rick opens his shirt and shows a large scar across his chest.
Cerebus starts to say something, but Rick has passed out.
Characters
- Cerebus (last seen in issue 219; next appearance in issue 221)
- Rick (last seen in issue 219; next appearance in issue 221)
- Viktor Davis (last seen in issue 185; final appearance)
Locations
Artist Notes
Dave Answers 6 Questons: September / October 2005
Q2a. When a relatively sober Rick recounts his final encounter with Viktor (Davis?), the silhouette appears to be that of Dave (p 13). Assuming this is a true story, what does this say about Rick's importance since Dave is manipulating him in person?
DAVE: Well, it's not entirely certain that Rick's would be an accurate recounting of that final encounter with Viktor. All autobiography tends to be self-aggrandizing and self-serving. Rick would've invented the thing about trying to hit Viktor and Viktor bending his wrist because Rick would think that if he didn't put a physical confrontation in there, it would make Rick look too pliant. Which he is and which most boyfriends, in my experience, are post-1970. You have to get really pliant really quickly or you're out of the relationship game. Yes, it was a way of incorporating Viktor Davis into the body of the work. Here's what Viktor Davis-Dave Sim-would've said to Rick if he ran across him when he was first courting Jaka. I never had a Viktor Davis when I was starting out-Gene Day recommended that Deni and I not get married ("What's your hurry?") but he never said why he was recommending that we not get married. I discovered it on my own. "Oh, this is what marriage is like." Just as I'm pretty sure that Gene never had a Viktor Davis to suggest he might not want to get married. I tried to be honest with the single guys that I knew when the subject would come up, but there is a weird magnetism at the core of marriage that repels reality like iron filings. The only guy that I really got through to went ahead and got married anyway and then found out that marriage was exactly the way I said it would be and he ended up drinking himself to death. Literally. So, marriage is in a weird category all its own. Like Merlin said about love in Camelot "A kind of seventh day when reason rests." The pre-pseudo-scripture Rick's Story texts were a way of communicating what I had to communicate in a more general way to the audience at large, having found that it didn't work with the drinking buddies that I had over the years. "Just be happy every waking minute for the rest of your life and you've got her as long as you want her." It certainly works. It's not what I would call much of a life, but it certainly works.
Quotes
- Viktor talking to Rick about Jaka: "...Just be happy every damn minute of your waking life and you've got her for as long as you want her."
Annotations
- p. 10: We see that Cerebus has put crates behind the bar to bring the floor level up so Cerebus can be seen above the bar.
- p. 16: Rick mentions Guinness as a beer in the land of Estarcion.
- p. 16: Rick's elbow knocked his glass off the table causing a Something Fell incident.
