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Cartoonshow
For Better or For Worse meets the satirical humor of contemporary American life in Cartoonshow , where single dading, money troubles, and political turmoil take the stage.
Cartoonist and animator 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.
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!
Cartoonist and animator 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.
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!
144 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 19, 2023
Heartbreaking and enraging.
January 13, 2024
*I received an e-arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
This cartoon collection from perfectly fine. I wasn't particularly drawn in by the art style - which in my e-arc was black-and-white, though I am unsure if there is color planned for the final release. In black-and-white, the work feels unfinished. The humor of the comics and the writing was good - though the text was difficult to read on my phone.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.
This cartoon collection from perfectly fine. I wasn't particularly drawn in by the art style - which in my e-arc was black-and-white, though I am unsure if there is color planned for the final release. In black-and-white, the work feels unfinished. The humor of the comics and the writing was good - though the text was difficult to read on my phone.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.
April 7, 2023
This one was not for me at all. The artwork was confusing and just not appealing, and while the storylines had potential and the focus on a single dad raising kids through rough times was an interesting take, I just found it too rough for me. Not just the artwork but the storyline too. I was looking for something that would entertain but enlighten and all I could do was react in a negative way to the situation. And I get that it's a memoir so these are experiences lived or lived to some degree if not 100% to this degree. Which is what makes it hard for me to say that this was not a book for me, but it really wasn't. Ballard was not a likeable character and not matter how many strips I read through, I found myself disliking him more rather than getting on side in his struggles. Maybe that was the point: that you don't have to be a great person to raise kids and be part of society. But I feel like the aim was really to get us to laugh about his life and experiences and to feel for him rather than against him. I just never got there. Nothing really triggered a laugh or even a chuckle.
And the cover was misleading because I truly thought it would look more like that. And it does but in black and white which is kind of sloppier.
* I received and ARC via NetGalley.
And the cover was misleading because I truly thought it would look more like that. And it does but in black and white which is kind of sloppier.
* I received and ARC via NetGalley.
April 5, 2023
As someone who has been following Derek Ballard’s cartoonstrips on Instagram, I can say that he has a wicked sense of humor, as well as keen eye for injustic. As a single father of three children, with a deadbeat ex-wife, he writes about what it is like to try to exist on labor intensive jobs, not qualifying for food stamps, and the very day problem of not being able to pay the electric bill.
He includes a laugh track in the strips, I suppose, to show where it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
In this collection it goes from bad to worse, to having his car towed, to finding out the house that he should have got in the divorce is being foreclosed on, because his ex didn’t keep up the payments (and also left the cat behind to die in the house.)
Through it all, he tries to keep his spirits up, but this collection, along with his on-going work, is really about how the middle lower class are just ground into the ground.
However, despite the depressing nature of these little short vignettes, it is good to read a different point of view.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. Coming out the 1st of August from Oni Press.
He includes a laugh track in the strips, I suppose, to show where it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
In this collection it goes from bad to worse, to having his car towed, to finding out the house that he should have got in the divorce is being foreclosed on, because his ex didn’t keep up the payments (and also left the cat behind to die in the house.)
Through it all, he tries to keep his spirits up, but this collection, along with his on-going work, is really about how the middle lower class are just ground into the ground.
However, despite the depressing nature of these little short vignettes, it is good to read a different point of view.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. Coming out the 1st of August from Oni Press.
July 28, 2023
Ballard's edgy comics, and frenetic drawing style perfectly capture the difficulties of raising three kids alone, and the massive frustrations of dealing with a broken system and overtaxed social safety nets. You'll both commiserate and cheer for this guy as he struggles to feed his kids (and occasionally himself) while just trying to get through the day.
Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for sharing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for sharing.
July 4, 2026
(Inspired by Demetri Martin’s Joke about Toy Story 2): Derek M Ballard’s Cartoonshow was okay.
Ballard has a unique style and a unique situation in life. This is mostly a parental anxiety comic-strip style collection.
He’s venting about how hard it is to raise kids on a shoestring budget and how inaccessible government help is to get.
It’s fine to pass the time, but if he honed his anti-capitalist/ pro social safety net reform angle he could seriously start a political movement. I want to keep him in mind specifically to do the art for a pro-quality of life populist.
Ballard has a unique style and a unique situation in life. This is mostly a parental anxiety comic-strip style collection.
He’s venting about how hard it is to raise kids on a shoestring budget and how inaccessible government help is to get.
It’s fine to pass the time, but if he honed his anti-capitalist/ pro social safety net reform angle he could seriously start a political movement. I want to keep him in mind specifically to do the art for a pro-quality of life populist.
September 12, 2024
Excellent and original cartooning. An autobiographical comic that evokes real feelings of frustration, empathy, sympathy, and a little joy. I hope Derek Ballard keeps getting to make comics because I will absolutely keep reading them.
October 31, 2024
Pretty decent autobio diary comic about being a struggling single parent. Very depressing in parts. The art is kind of sketchy but in a way I like.
I got a signed copy of this book from the Small Press Expo.
I got a signed copy of this book from the Small Press Expo.
Want to Read
April 29, 2023Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
March 24, 2026
ADULT STRESS
July 18, 2023
Reading Cartoonshow, a collected series of comic strips by Derek M. Ballard, was a real trip for me. Ballard draws his real, everyday life as a poor, single dad in a chaotic style that clearly mimics his admittedly bleak lived experience. There is humor in this satire, which it is being marketed as, but it is DARK. I believe the title is ironic because the reality is a SHITSHOW.
Be prepared to be sad and angry if you choose to read this.
As he says after depicting the stripped, abandoned, and foreclosed house that he lost through his divorce: "If I were to use symbolism or metaphor or whatever I would make it more subtle. This really happened."
While I did not personally resonate with Ballard's style and some vignettes felt incomplete, I was undeniably emotionally gripped by his stories. The predicament of parenting through poverty in America is absolutely infuriating, and Ballard's frustration and fury come through loud and clear, even in these black-and-white line drawings.
As the reader, I felt invited directly into his difficulties trying to survive with three children, no job, no money, no support, no help at all—which Ballard points out is rarely spotlighted in parenting publications. Since I'm not a parent, I neither know what it's like to be in his shoes nor do I read parenting texts. But I'm taking this guy's word for it. His is a voice that needs to be heard. Not every family has two parents to raise the kids or grandparents who can step in and help, much less a full-time nanny. Those families' stories deserve to be told.
Books provide us with windows into the lives of others and mirrors to see our own life reflected back to us. Readers who have not experienced what Ballard has should definitely look through the window he has drawn here. Those who have lived it will probably appreciate seeing their struggles represented. Either way, it is an uncomfortable read that will stoke the fires of rage about the injustices of our societal structures.
Thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for this ARC! Cartoonshow by Derek M. Ballard comes out on August 1, 2023!
Be prepared to be sad and angry if you choose to read this.
As he says after depicting the stripped, abandoned, and foreclosed house that he lost through his divorce: "If I were to use symbolism or metaphor or whatever I would make it more subtle. This really happened."
While I did not personally resonate with Ballard's style and some vignettes felt incomplete, I was undeniably emotionally gripped by his stories. The predicament of parenting through poverty in America is absolutely infuriating, and Ballard's frustration and fury come through loud and clear, even in these black-and-white line drawings.
As the reader, I felt invited directly into his difficulties trying to survive with three children, no job, no money, no support, no help at all—which Ballard points out is rarely spotlighted in parenting publications. Since I'm not a parent, I neither know what it's like to be in his shoes nor do I read parenting texts. But I'm taking this guy's word for it. His is a voice that needs to be heard. Not every family has two parents to raise the kids or grandparents who can step in and help, much less a full-time nanny. Those families' stories deserve to be told.
Books provide us with windows into the lives of others and mirrors to see our own life reflected back to us. Readers who have not experienced what Ballard has should definitely look through the window he has drawn here. Those who have lived it will probably appreciate seeing their struggles represented. Either way, it is an uncomfortable read that will stoke the fires of rage about the injustices of our societal structures.
Thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for this ARC! Cartoonshow by Derek M. Ballard comes out on August 1, 2023!
January 5, 2025
Cartoonshow captures very real emotions and shows that you can be doing your best and sometimes the system fails you anyways. As someone who hopes to one day become a parent but struggles financially and is worried about a lot of what this book showcased it was a hard read for me but it was definitely worth it. If you like the art style and serious conversations with humor mixed in I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews