Illustrated adventure
Alison Mason shares talent in comic strips
ALBANY
Alison Mason, a circulation librarian at the Cumberland County Public Library and South Kentucky RECC consumer member, has always been into art and drawing. But living a life of uncertainty as so many others were during the 2020 pandemic, Mason—a college student at the time—wanted to do something that would “bring a little sunshine and fun into the world.”
As a longtime fan of the classic comic strips Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, Mason thought, “Well, maybe I can do a comic strip. I don’t think it’s that hard.” She had previously written one story about a farm-dwelling mouse named Rudy and another about Trevor, a mouse who lived in a snow globe. So, Mason decided to create a four-block comic strip, starring both Rudy and Trevor, her “mice pals,” as she calls them.
Mason reached out to the local newspaper, Clinton County News, to see if the editor had interest in publishing her comic strip; it turned out he did. Since then, Mason’s mice pals have appeared in her hometown newspaper every week in a comic strip series called The Adventures of Rudy and Trevor.
Mason says of the mouse duo: “They laugh, they create crazy situations, they crack jokes, they celebrate, they get wrapped up in the water hose and steal the fishbowl to create an astronaut helmet.” Rudy is the mastermind behind it all, whether he’s dressing up in his dinosaur costume to practice his roaring or attempting a balloon flight. Recently, Mason created some new mice friends—Linus, Jojo and Sophie—to add to the gang.
The Adventures of Rudy and Trevor has now reached six states, appearing in 30 newspapers and two magazines. Unlike other cartoonists, Mason doesn’t have a publisher or receive payment for her comic strips. “It’s all for fun,” she says. “I like to use it as a reminder that life is fun and deserves to be enjoyed, despite the scary and uncertain days we’re living in.”
Mason says she hopes Rudy, Trevor and their mice pals can continue providing humor to newspaper readers across other states, too. “I know a lot of people are stressed out over stuff,” she adds. “It would just be nice if they could open up the paper and be like, ‘What’s Rudy up to today?’”
Find books featuring Rudy and Trevor by author and illustrator Alison Mason on Amazon.com.
AMY COBB is the author of two book series for children, Band Geeks and Libby Wimbley.
