Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 16, 2022

Good morning™, everyone!

I have a feeling that this, finally, is our villain. I don’t know who he could be, but he is very picky about his coffee!

Good morning™, cranky customers !

Enter bad guy No. 1. Counter work can be quite grueling and the pay is just not worth it. He’ll brighten up when Tracy comes for his daily non station cuppa.

Wow! The plot thickens with a change of scene

Demanding customer, those are very difficult to please

Who put the “sewer” in connoisseur?

I just can’t enjoy today’s strip with that screaming one window, two windows door difference between the outside and inside views!

The coffee can’t be any good in such a sloppily built joint like this place is!

“Oh, the agony of it all!!”

Much better! Now we’re getting somewhere!

Some people near the end of yesterday’s strip comments were wondering what a “horsemeat racket” was in the 1952 Tonsils story. I had been wondering the same thing, so I decided to search on Google. I had forgotten, but there was a big horsemeat racket in Europe and the UK as recently as 2017. People were buying hamburgers that were supposedly 100% beef that were actually 29% horsemeat and it wasn’t even good horsemeat at times.

https://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/beef-burgers-sold-with-29-percent-horsemeat/

http://horseplayusa.com/illegal-horsemeat-racket-that-spans-europe-exposed/

This gives me real déjà vu of the introduction of Coney, a villain that liked ice cream cones.

So I surmise this guy’s name will be like Beans or Al Cappuccino.

The espresso has HIM steamed.

Well, it’s not the Sugar Shack, cuz the espresso coffee doesn’t taste mighty good.

Love the name Bean Howz,! Clever!

The silhouette in panel 3 looks bald. I thought it could be Daddy Warbucks, but he wouldn’t be that rude (post Annie).

Coffy goes Evil!

Tough crowd.

I’m sorry but the last few days have left me stone cold : (

The counterman was so surprised, his waist shrank by four inches (and his clothes shrank to match). Now that’s surprise.

I suspect that the villain of the story has now appeared. He is particular about his espresso and has a bad temper. The Tonsils imitator may prove to be a hit on The Dot View Show. Success means money and money draws the criminal element in Tracyville. Trouble in the “Howz.”

everyone’s a critic

Window count discrepancies are a real PANE, aren’t they??

I trust this unseen customer paid first before he was served. It might be a similar brew to what they drink at MCU.

No sign in the window saying “Satisfaction guaranteed or money cheerily refunded”.

Don’t tell me….I told you not to tell me….shop owner is going to get snuffed for serving lousy expresso. On second thought, giving the unseen person’s mood….he’ll get a beat-down instead.

They must be using Starbucks beans and making it like Starbucks. If you want good coffee out, try Black Rifle Coffee Company. If not that, then Caribou Coffee. I wouldn’t buy Starbucks even if it was to put out a fire.

Coffyhead is the obvious guess, except this shadow doesn’t appear to be a head shaped like a coffee pot. Hence, there’s hope of something new, which would be a real switch.

1-??? Coffee and a joke, please. I need a couple of mood improvers…

2-BARISTA MAN: Coming right up. OK, so… Did you know that Ashton Kutcher’s family had to shorten his Eastern European name when he was young because someone always called Child Protective Services when they heard his mom yelling “TIME FOR DINNER! ASHTON! ASHTON KUTCHERCOCOFF!!!”

3-??? SPIT TAKE HAAAAAAAAAAA! THAT’S HILARIOUS! YOU OUGHTA BE ON STAGE!!!

BARISTA: Really? You think so? ???: No. I’m going to shoot you now.

MOVIE QUOTE

ABBOTT:“Every time you go into a saloon,the Devil goes in with you”

COSTELLO:“If he does,he buys his own drink!”

Just a note—-when we last saw The Nitrates,the woman “met cute” with the author in a place called THE COFFEE POT.

Not the same pot-shaped place Junior’s mother ran in the old days.But at least somebody remembered the name.

I’d like to think Tonsils 2 will have a happier ending than the first one.

Also,a dentist commented that the false teeth theyidentified his remains by were made in 1948.That leaves4 years of his life unaccounted for.

Son of Tonsils??

What do you expect? It was ground this morning!

Hey, he just works there.

Let’s review shoot out with Yeti…Then panels with Vitamin Flintheart…and now phooeyat a barista’s coffee….????

He’s back! Spit-Take is back!

I think it’s a fair guess that the disgruntled guy in the dark suit is going to be our villain. He has at any rate terrified the counterman in the Bean Howz coffee shop.

More than that I can’t squeeze from today’s tantalizing sequence….

gee, i was at that coffee shop this morning and liked the dark roast a lot!

https://youtu.be/aVI-Jew-iHo

Is this the first time he’s tried coffee?