09/21/2026
If you spent 20 years creating a distinctive style at Hallmark Cards, you’d probably have a few good stories to tell. But local artist Pedro Martín didn’t just have stories—he had a 2,000-mile, laugh-out-loud family road trip locked in his memory banks.
In 2023, Martín traded greeting cards for graphic novels, releasing "Mexikid." The hilarious, heartwarming memoir about packing into a Winnebago in 1977 to fetch his revolution-fighting grandfather from Mexico absolutely took the literary world by storm. It didn’t just win a Newbery Honor; it scooped up Eisner, Harvey, and Pura Belpré awards like a kid raiding a piñata.
Suddenly, this neighborhood creative was a national influencer, changing the game for Latino representation in children’s literature.
📸: Kenny Johnson Photography
✍️: Katie Van Luchene
To learn more about Martín, Mexikid Stories, and 11 other Innovators and Influencers in Kansas City, click the link in the comments.
