Ready, Set, Draw! The Ultimate Sharpie Showdown

This ultimate sketch-off is a competition between renowned illustrators Honie Beam, Ward Jenkins, and Pedro Martín, hosted by Justin Colussy-Estes. Topics are unpredictable and based on audience suggestions and ideas. More than a dozen sketches will be signed and given to lucky audience members. This is a great session for all ages! 

This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, and seating is first come, first served.

Signing information:

Signing time: 5:00 PM

Signing location: Core Dance Studios, 133 Sycamore Street

About the Authors

Honie (pronounced honey) Beam grew up reading Junie B. books and made her graphic novel debut with Junie B.! She joins us with her book with Colleen AF Venable, Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying: The Graphic Novel.

Ward Jenkins is a children's book illustrator and storyboard artist from the Atlanta, Georgia area. He's illustrated picture books for Simon & Schuster (Chicks Run Wild and How to Train with a T.Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals) and Chronicle Books (New York, Baby! and San Francisco, Baby!). Other books he's illustrated are Salam Alaikum: A Message of Peace and Rocket Shoes. He also illustrated Tales of the Dairy Godmother: Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish, which won the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture's prestigious Book Of The Year for 2021. In between illustrating books, he's also a storyboard artist for such shows as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Snoopy In Space, Camp Snoopy, and Ada Twist, Scientist. Ward's latest endeavor has been illustrating Stuart Gibbs's Moon Base Alpha graphic novel series, with the first two installments out now: Space Case: The Graphic Novel and Spaced Out: The Graphic Novel. Ward lives with his wife Andrea, who's a writer and photographer, and they have two kids: Ava and Ezra (both young adults and nascent artists). He hasn't shaved his beard since 2010.

Pedro Martín is the Newbery Honor Award–winning and Pura Belpré Award–winning creator of the graphic memoir Mexikid, based on his online comic series of the same name. Mexikid has landed on many end-of-the-year best-of lists, including The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Booklist. He joins us in Decatur with the graphic memoir companion, Mexikid Dreams: A Graphic Memoir. Pedro is a former Hallmark artist who lives with his wife in Kansas City. 

Emcee:

Justin Colussy-Estes is the store manager of Little Shop of Stories.