Pedro Martin
I came across Pedro Martin last year when his graphic novel Mexikid burst onto the scene. It’s the story of when his very large family all drove down from central California to Mexico to bring his grandfather back to live with them. It is such a wonderfully specific yet instantly accessible story of being a kid.
Mexikid is a Newbery Award Honor and has landed on many end of the year best-of lists, including The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and the School Library Journal.
The son of an immigrant sharecropper and one of nine kids, Pedro spent his childhood in the strawberry fields of the Monterey Bay Area. He grew up with a talent for art and music leading him to earn a graphic design degree at San Jose State University.
Pedro lives with his very talented wife and two somewhat talented dogs in Kansas City, Missouri.
Why Comics?
Comics are where I learned to read and write. Mrs. Woolover, God rest her soul, swears she taught me how to read and write. But she was deluding herself and she knew it! It was Mad Magazine and Richie Rich that introduced me to literature, Mrs W.! (No shade intended. Mrs Woolover taught me other valuable stuff, like basic puppetry and math.)
But I never saw myself being skilled enough to create comics like the ones I could buy at the convenience store. They just looked too complicated for someone like me to ever attempt. I would rather just be a fan.
It wasn’t until I discovered animation that I found a place where all my limited skills could come together to tell a decent story. I taught myself how to animate using Flash and did a little series of stories called Asteroid Andy for Hallmark Cards. Writing and animating “Andy” catapulted me into helping develop and do the production design for two animated holiday specials for CBS and the Hallmark Channel. It was the big time!
One day, that all went away and I found myself outside of the corporate woods looking for something new. I still wanted to tell stories, but I knew I didn’t want to go back to a corporate lifestyle. I needed to find a way to tell stories completely on my own. So I started drawing a weekly web series called Mexikid Stories. These stories were based on my childhood as part of a Mexican immigrant family. It was so much fun! It was like producing a tiny, simply drawn, twenty panel animated story every week but without all the baggage of being part of a corporate zoo.
But I couldn’t stay tiny for long. I then got the opportunity to do my first graphic novel, which, unlike my little 20 panel stories, blew up to be a 320 page epic! It was like doing a full length movie where I was the director, writer, cinematographer, and leading man all at once. It was pretty awesome and now this is all I want to do. Tell stories. Big and small.
What is my favorite part?
The roughs. I love the blue pencil stage. It’s fast and loose and pretty. Plus, it makes my early ideas seem like they have the potential to be something great someday.
What are you working on?
I’m working on the sequel to my book, Mexikid A Graphic Memoir. I’m in the “writing the manuscript” phase. This is the hardest part of making one of these epics. Getting all the dialogue to work in an expedient way. Making sure everything is flowing from chapter to chapter. And of course, “killing your darlings.”
Editing is a HUGE part of writing! HUGE! Even though everything you have written to this point is hilarious and thoughtful, a lot of it will have to go! If you’re blessed with a great editor like I am (The great Kate Harrison), this part will only make your work stronger. It was a hard lesson to learn, but now I’m on “Team Editor.” Our chant is “KILL THOSE DARLINGS!”
You can find Pedro and his ongoing bite-sized Mexikid stories online at
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