Meet High Pressure Pete

Pete’s heading out for a night on the town. That’s the town in the background, a classic 20s cityscape. He uses a phone at a shop that sells - get ready for the gag of all gags - used cigars. To Swan’s credit, he doesn’t push the used-cigar gag that hard; like many other items in this curious strip, they’re just there. Unexplained. (You’ll see in the next strip how he does something truly bizarre with the cigar.)

If nothing else, the used cigars cushion Pete’s ass when it’s flung into the hard, tiled floor.