Long-time readers of this blog know that I try hard to give Rivera an even break, even promoting this strip whenever possible. I’ve invested a lot of time and thought into analyzing, describing, and commenting on various aspects of this strip; from writing, to visual composition, to drawing, to characterizations, and more.

So, when I tell you that this story makes less and less sense by the day, I’m not just trying out snarky comments for Comics Kingdom (in fact, I don’t post on the Mark Trail page. I leave that to Bill F. and his compatriots). For one thing, I’ve noticed a change in tempo and temperature coming from Bill Ellis through today. Starting with his initial near-hyperbolic presentation at the start of this phone call (last Saturday), it has softened to a casual, bantering phone play during this week, as if this was all just sending Mark out on a normal assignment reporting on Japanese Knotweed. No hurry, no big deal.

We have today’s strip closing out the week and filling the space on your screen or your newspaper page without furthering the story. Presumably, Jules Rivera is writing her own stories, so she can pace them as she pleases. But can she develop a plot that does not require wasting days with empty blather? We’ve seen this happen over and over. To be fair, Rivera is not unique. Prior artist James Allen did this, as well.

A traditional approach in adventure strips was to use Monday’s strip (if Sunday was not part of the continuity) to summarize the prior week’s progress. This helps relieve the cartoonist from having to keep inserting time-wasting strips into the storyline. But Rivera likes to do both.

Since Rivera claims to be science– and nature-oriented, she has ample room to make those concerns more integral to this strip. It would be much more appreciated by the readers (I’m sure) than wasting dailies with endless bad jokes, bad puns, and an apparent low regard for the readers.