No to all.
Yes to both.
Does the term ‘Fata Morgana’ come into play anywhere?
-“BB”-
Is there any other relevant feature of the park beyond it containing a body of water?
If so, is there any relevant feature on the same side of the water as Nancy? Any on the opposite side of the water? Any within the body of water?
No.
reply to Chronos:
Is there any other relevant feature of the park beyond it containing a body of water? Normal park stuff. A little bridge. Trees. etc.
If so, is there any relevant feature on the same side of the water as Nancy? Any on the opposite side of the water? Any within the body of water?
The same features are relevant on both sides of the water. A little bridge, trees etc. And Nancy. She wanted to come to a place with a water reflection so that…
Was there a human looking fish face?
Was she comparing something in the reflected background with the image in the final frame? Perhaps to ascertain what the image depicted (rather than turning the newspaper upside down)?
No.
No.
… she could see what was on the other side of the bridge?
(I don’t know. I’m grasping at straws.)
We could see her reflected?
Again, think of the comic strip, its logic, and Ernie Bushmiller’s advice to always “dumb it down.” Panel 1: Nancy reads the newspaper. Panel 2: Nancy sees a comic strip in the paper with the last panel accidentally printed upside down. Panel 3: Nancy states commentary and a reason that leads her to go to the park. Panel 4: Nancy goes to the park by the lake. Surely now you see the reason!
So Nancy was not upside down but the reflection in the water of what she was looking at was upside down?
Did the object and its reflection visually connect so that together hey made one image?
reply to Saint_Cad:
So Nancy was not upside down but the reflection in the water of what she was looking at was upside down? Nancy is not herself physically upside down. She is on a bridge looking at the reflection in the lake.
Did the object and its reflection visually connect so that together hey made one image?
Not sure what you mean here.
And the reflection on the lake was upside-down?
Looking at the sunset over the lake. Half of the Sun above the horizon and the reflection on the lake combine to look like the full disk of the Sun.
Does Nancy, from her perspective, view anything as upside down in her own last frame?
Is there some sense in which the gag could be considered “meta” or self-referential from Nancy’s point of view, whether she’s aware of it or not?
Was she looking at her reflection in the lake?
The sun’s?
A sign’s?
An advertisement?
Nancy breaks the 4th wall, right? Is she creating an upside-down image for her cartoonist, without being upside-down?
… on further review, I think that’s similar to what @dirtball is getting at.
Yes. You got it! Nancy is worried such a similar mistake could happen with her own comic strip. So Nancy goes to the reflective lake in the park and creates a final frame for her cartoonist so that it is not possible for that last frame to be printed upside down. Because either way is right-side up!