Cartoonshow (Oni Press, 2023)

Derek is a solo parent raising three kids in the American South while trying to make art. Told in a series of free-flowing and often hilarious comic essays, Cartoonshow gets to the heart of the struggle to be a creative person in a society that doesn't value anything other than how much it can grind out of you. Covid, poverty, the failing social safety net, predatory lenders, and literal acts of God can't stop our hero Derek M Ballard makes modern American family comics. It's not his fault that being a single parent in America is kind of a nightmare.