Okay, I’m confused. I thought the name of this adventure comic strip was MARK TRAIL, not DIANA DAGGERS. I mean, who is the outdoors expert, the veteran woodsman (to use an old phrase), the avid fishing expert, the nature photographer? Seems to me that Diana Daggers has pretty much taken over that job, based on this adventure. She is the one taking photos (but of what?), which is more than Mark was ever shown doing; she is the one giving out fishing advise; she is not the one complaining about not catching the right kind of fish. Next, she’ll be telling Mark what kind of lure to use.

But then, she asks if Mark has seen any mussels in the area. I’d have thought that that would be the first thing they would discuss, before getting this far. And wouldn’t Mark have been at least a little curious about why they are wasting time here, if there are no mussels to be found?

Okay, Mark holds his up tiny catfish as if he’s some urban rube who paid a lot of money to a real fisherman to take him out to where the big fish are biting. I mean, come on, Jules! You made the point in panel 1 that Mark caught a tiny fish. No reason to rub Mark’s nose in it.

As for the caption boxes, I’ve written at length about them before, and I liked how they were used to summarize current events; advance the story line; or crack the occasional joke. Now, they seem to be focused on providing sitcom-style jibes. Not sure about the boxes in the first panel. Is Rivera making a joke about the reader’s dating life? If it is Mark’s dating life, why wouldn’t she have written “his”? And how does Jules know what my dating life is like, anyway!? But that’s okay. I don’t take it personally. Still, I’ll respond as if it was actually meant for me: “How is Mark’s fishing trip like George’s dating life?” My response: “I’d probably catch more with allure!”

If you have not noticed, I’m also ignoring any more boat jokes. And I’m going to nominate today’s strip for “Most Egregious Story Padding in a Daily” in this current adventure.