Knowing that he only gets a few more kid birthdays before the gifts start turning from cool stuff into things like dress shirts and nose-hair trimmers, Greg is determined to make his upcoming celebration something special. Unfortunately, due to a household mishap, his mom forgot to mark his birthday on the family calendar—and his dad “depends on Mom to remind him about stuff, just like the rest of us.” This incident is neither the first nor the last time that Greg’s narrative will have readers wincing and laughing at the same time—and the do-over bash Mom remorsefully agrees to organize winds up collapsing in chaos. Still, what cloud doesn’t have its silver lining? So notorious does the party become that requests from other parents to plan similar celebrations for their kids pour in, and Greg, seeing big bucks in his future, closes not with sour grapes but a philosophical shrug: “Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.” Subplots skewer social media and the mania for trading cards. Kinney dishes up a rich mixture of deadpan monologue and cartoons laden with gags and punchlines for this 20th series entry. His dot-eyed, rubbery-nosed figures are the color of the paper.