During these testing times of COVID-19 and all else that has become associated with the year 2020, the Clinton County News has been trying to come up with new ways to keep our readers entertained with some tidbits of “good news” from time to time.

So, it was with welcomed relief last week when NEWS Editor Al Gibson read an email from a young Clinton County resident, Alison Mason, who was interested in sharing with our readers the adventures of two characters she has created for a regular comic strip.

Beginning this week, the Clinton County News will begin publishing Mason’s strip, titled, simply: The Adventures of Rudy and Trevor.

Mason is a senior at Campbellsville University – Somerset, and is an Elementary Education major.

The daughter of Dale and Calarie Mason and the granddaughter of Oris and Shirley Shelton and Jerry and Janice Mason, she is set to graduate this May with a Bachelor’s degree.

In addition, she currently works part-time as a Children’s Librarian at the Clinton County Public Library.

Mason told the Clinton County News last week that she came up with the character Rudy about a year ago, noting that she later added his comrade, Trevor.

“Since I have always wanted to publish a book, I first developed Rudy as a character to try to get published about a year ago,” Mason told the Clinton County News last week. “I knew once I drew him that he was very special.”

Although the strip appears in black and white in the Clinton County News, she did give a more detailed description of the two characters so readers could use some imagination as they follow the adventures of these two new characters.

“Rudy wears red gloves just to make him quirky. He’s smaller than Trevor, is loud, silly, and loves to have fun. In his original story, he started out as a farm mouse who wanted to play music. Trevor came along a few months ago when I developed him for the library’s Facebook page to help keep patrons interested and involved with the library,” Mason explained.

“Trevor wears a jacket, snow boots, and a knit hat because in the original story he lived in a snow globe. Trevor puts up with all of Rudy’s shenanigans and often finds himself at the tail end of them.” she said.

Mason added that after following the comic strips of Calvin and Hobbes and also the Peanuts gang, she decided the=at Rudy and Trevor needed to be friends and do silly things together.

“I hope everyone enjoys Rudy and Trevor as much as I do,” Mason added.

The Clinton County News hopes so as well. This week’s panel featuring Rudy and his friend Trevor, appears on page X.

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