Okay, the miracle of the mud occurred, after all. Enough to ruin the evening for the Grungey Boys.

Moving on, I am amazed to see in panel 1 what looks like another misdirected dialog balloon. It shows Honest Ernest berating his companions for doing something only he has been doing! The content of the dialog balloon suggests that one of the other two dudes should be berating Ernest. I don’t get it.

Furthermore, how does grabbing your cap or covering your mouth help extricate this lawn mower from the mud, as Rivera states? We’ve seen text boxes in the past that describe actions that do not appear to be happening. I might be overthinking this or Rivera under-thought it.

Anyway, it’s Saturday, so it looks like this story has reached its climax. The Grungey Boys are no doubt too unsettled to realize they could simply make a new path or go some other place. But it’s a major win for Rusty Trail, even if his understanding of science is wrong. This victory will certainly help improve his otherwise poor win-loss record. By the way, say good-bye to Dirk. He’ll disappear like free beer at a ballpark. Such is his mysterious way.

Art. Dept Addition: Here is today’s installment, as it appears in the newspaper. Again, much appreciated increase in the use of actual tonal contrast over Rivera’s previous habit of just raw lines.