Review by Ian Keogh

Graphic novel memoirs aimed at a young adult audience are so common now that it takes something really special to stand out. Mexikid is really special.

‘Mexikid’ is how Pedro Martín refers to himself as born and raised in the USA by Mexican parents, so straddling both nationalities and cultures. He’s the seventh of nine children, and his recollections concern an epic journey taken in 1977 when he was around ten years old. When the Martín family moved to the USA Pedro’s grandfather stayed behind, but a decade has passed and he’s decided it’s now the right time to leave. This requires the entire family driving over two thousand miles in a Winnebago and accompanying pick-up truck to collect their grandfather. Except he needs to sort out a few things first…

Charm and good-natured humour are supplied in abundance in an anecdote-packed trip never feeling padded at over three hundred pages. Martín began with short stories online, yet stitches them together seamlessly. He’s able to recall how he interacted with his family, and add different views on what he took for granted at the time.

For instance, he’d only known his grandfather as a slightly grumpy and very stern old man not shy of commenting on the young Pedro’s weight, yet on the journey down he learns of his grandfather’s incredible past during the Mexican Revolution. On arrival, an improved relationship develops during the periods the young Pedro is hanging out with numerous cousins, discovering new joys and relishing the cultural differences. Martín also characterises his parents well, his mother managing an impossible house and his father in the way of so many parents constantly repelling requests to visit the alluringly advertised roadside attractions. What the young Pedro perceived as penny pinching at the time can now be viewed as astounding financial management, the Winnebago itself being a bargain as someone had previously died in it.

An illustrator and animator by trade, Martín is an extremely versatile artist. The primary cartoon simplicity nonetheless transmits an emotional weight, and Martín applies an affectionate superhero comic style to illustrate some moments from his grandfather’s past. There are a few sombre sequences, and for these Martín switches to cartoon realism.

A couple of traumatic incidents make this a coming of age experience, but the tone is generally light and funny. What seals Mexikid as superior is Martín able to convey the value of his enthusiasms when younger, yet overlay the knowledge of hindsight and experience from the present. It’s a book to delight curious adults, never mind the younger audience it’s aimed at. Additional stories can be found on Martín’s webpage.