We’re pleased to present an excerpt from Derek M. Ballard’s graphic novel Cartoonshow, scheduled for release this week from Oni Press. You might know Ballard’s work from his contributions to Adventure Time or The Midnight Gospel; you might have also seen his comics at places like The Nib. In a wide-ranging interview with The Comics Journal in 2021, Ballard said that “a book with a spine, that’s something I’ve been trying to do for a long time.” In Cartoonshow, Ballard reckons with the experience of being a single father and a working artist, and the complexities that come with both.