About me
I’m Porter Mason, and I’m a cartoonist. I’ve been publishing comics since I was 13, and it seems like I’m going to keep doing that.
My first published comic was Johnny the Mediocre Human. It started in the paper at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, ran now and then in The Virginian-Pilot, and came with me to Duke University, where it was about college life.
Then came Bassist Wanted, a comic strip about the music industry. From 2004 to 2010 it ran in alternative weekly papers from Buffalo to Los Angeles, right next to their music listings. It became two books, and the first, All Local Bands Suck (Except Ours), was nominated for Best Book at the 2009 ECNY Awards. Around this time, I also made One Nation, Thunder Dog, about twin sisters, a Democratic Congresswoman and a Republican lobbyist. (Inspired by my brief stint as an organizer for the Obama campaign in 2008.)
These days I draw Roonie the Rabbit, a comic strip about cute animals with big feelings. In 2026 I Kickstarted its first book, Cute Animals for Flawed People, a hardback collecting the first 301 comics. It was fully funded in under two hours and chosen as a Kickstarter “Project We Love.” This comic also inspired a series of “Emotional Animals” illustrations, collected here (and also published as coloring pages).
I used to perform and teach comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and Los Angeles. I performed alongside some pretty cool people, like D’Arcy Carden and Jeff Hiller, and taught and coached some pretty cool people too, like Aubrey Plaza, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer and Nicole Byer.
I live in northern New Jersey with my wife and two daughters, and also have raised millions of dollars for nonprofits online.
Most importantly, I’m always on the lookout for the perfect breakfast sandwich. The current contenders: Tandem Bakery in Portland, Maine, Dutch’s Sandwich Shop in Montclair, New Jersey, and The Salty Cow in Bloomfield.
Keep me making comics
Roonie and friends run on Patreon. $5 a month gets you exclusive comics, and keeps me in breakfast sandwiches.
To publish or license my comics, ask about a drawing, or simply heap praise upon me, email porter@rooniecomics.com.