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Camila Kerwin’s Soft Targets: Guns in America and Kids Caught in the Crossfire is a Personal Look Through Stories of Gun Violence

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Soft Targets: Guns in America and Kids Caught in the Crossfire

Coming October 27, 2026 from Street Noise, Soft Targets: Guns in America and Kids Caught in the Crossfire is the debut graphic novel by author and journalist Camila Kerwin.

In 2020, gun violence became the leading cause of death for kids and teens in the United States.

About seven kids die from gun violence each day.

Camila first started speaking to the loved ones of children lost to guns for a story on the 2018 Parkland shooting in Florida. She shares in the book, “That reporting ushered me into the broader world of guns and kids in America. For the most part, these stories don’t make national headlines. They’re quiet, daily disasters—the kids who die in the crossfire of gang violence, or at the hands of an angry relative. The troubled kids who find a gun in a parent’s closet. The curious kids who find a gun in a bedside drawer. Families live in the wreckage.”

Camila’s indictment of gun violence and gun culture in the United States takes us through the stories of four families with children who have lost their lives. These personal stories bring home the true consequences of our country’s lax gun regulations; alongside that, the book unpacks how our country got here.

Camila Kerwin is an award-winning journalist who makes comics and radio. She’s a regular comics contributor to The Boston Globe and a founding member of the audio editing studio Rough Cut Collective. Camila illustrated the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning ‘Class of COVID-19: An Education Crisis for Florida’s Vulnerable Students,’ for WLRN. She has been a producer at Marketplace’s This is Uncomfortable, Storycorps, and NPR’s On Point, and an editor at KCRW’s Bodies. Her work has appeared on WNYC, NPR’s Morning Edition, Sony’s Cheat!, PRI’s The World, and in The Miami Herald. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from NYU and holds a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism as well as an MFA from Boston University. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and cat.

Get a copy from Bookshop, Amazon, or from your local comic shop or bookstore.

SDCC 2026: Street Noise Books spotlights Melissa Chan and You Must Take Part in Revolution

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You Must Take Part in Revolution

Activist graphic novel publisher Street Noise Books will spotlight author Melissa Chan at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. 

Melissa Chan is the author of You Must Take Part in Revolution (co-created with Badiucao), a graphic novel exploring the onward march of authoritarianism and the power of resistance in China and around the globe. She is an Emmy-nominated Hong Kong and Taiwanese American foreign correspondent based between Los Angeles and Berlin. She was previously posted in China until she became the first journalist in more than a decade to be expelled by the Chinese authorities in 2012. Much of her reporting examines human rights, the rise of global authoritarianism, and the defense of democracies. She has written for The New York Times, where she was nominated for a Loeb Award—business journalism’s highest honor—and The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time, The Guardian, and more. As a broadcast correspondent, she has reported for VICE News Tonight and Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines. 

You Must Take Part in Revolution is an essential graphic novel for our time — a much-needed story about the consequences of today’s threats to Democracy, and an inspiration for all of us in building a better future. 

Melissa will be featured at the show at the following programs and signings:

Carousel: Comics Performances

Thursday, 7/23/2026, 4:00PM – 5:00PM
Room: Grand 10 & 11, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
Moderated by: R. Sikoryak

Featuring Melissa Chan (“You Must Take Part in Revolution,” Street Noise Books), Maëlle Doliveux (“I Will Live Forever,” Beehive Books), Peter Kuper (“Wish We Weren’t Here,” Fantagraphics), Katie Skelly (“Heaven,” Fantagraphics), Sophie Yanow (“The Contradictions,” Drawn & Quarterly)

Comics vs. Authoritarianism!

Saturday, 7/25/2026, 3:30PM – 4:30PM
Room: 10
Moderated by: Mo McMasters (Pretty Guts Press)

Featuring Melissa Chan (“You Must Take Part in Revolution,” Street Noise Books), Andrew Aydin (“March,” Top Shelf/IDW), Dave Maass (“Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis,” Dark Horse Comics), and Shay Mirk (“Making Non-Fiction Comics,” Abrams ComicArts)

Signing:

Friday, 7/24/2026, 10:00AM – 11:00AM

Fanbase Press @ Booth O-03

I Won’t Pretend These Missiles are Stars is an interesting anthology exploring recent events in Iran

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What does war feel like? Listen to real people on the ground in Iran. War is not a video game. People’s lives are shattered.

An eye-opening anthology from a collective of fifteen different young writers and artists who were going about their daily lives in and around Tehran, while Israel and the United States carried out a bombing campaign to cripple the Iranian nuclear weapons capabilities.

We learn about the nightmare of trying to sleep while bombs are exploding all around you; about the struggle to rescue your beloved cat as you are evacuating your home; about the anxiety of not being able to communicate with your friends and loved ones and learn of their whereabouts; and we hear about the trauma of being forced to return to an abusive home in order to stay “safe.”

A searing and honest account of life in Tehran during the U.S. and Israeli attacks of 2025. This book was edited by two Iranian comics teachers, and the publisher has kept all of the editors’, authors’, and artists’ identities anonymous for their safety.

By: The Cartoonist Collective in Tehran

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Bookshop
Amazon

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

Street Noise Books Presents: Changing the World with Comics in Spring 2026

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Street Noise Books has revealed what it has coming in Spring 2026. Every book is a story that support the publisher’s mission of dissident publishing the raises up marginalized voices.

Ace of Hearts

by cooklin
Purchase: Amazon – Bookshop

Debut author cooklin really pulled me into this autobiographical story about her discovery of her asexuality. This book takes us from her high school experience through college to today as she explores relationships, identity, and self-worth. It’s a personal and thoughtful read. 

Ace of Hearts

Chicken Heart

by Morgan Boecher
Purchase: Amazon – Bookshop

We just got a great review from Foreward for this book (yay!) — they called it, “a thoughtful graphic novel in which a trans man finds the strength to accept his own identity.” It also contains: stand-up comedy, communes, and failed attempts at gardening! 

Chicken Heart

War Poems

by Jamie Mustard and Corey Drayton
Purchase: Amazon – Bookshop

In this collection of futuristic poetry that explores the darkest corners of human existence, these short form, cinematic stories bring into sharp relief the point of view of those we most fear, abhor, and cast out. We’re glad to share another incisive reflection on the world today from Jamie Mustard, the author of our fall graphic novel Hybred. 

War Poems

Welcome to Hell

by Mohammad Sabaaneh
Purchase: Bookshop

In October of 2023, Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh was on an international book tour to promote his latest graphic novel. This autobiographical account chronicles his return to Gaza that month and his life since then on the West Bank — while also sharing the story of his brother, who was locked in an Israeli detention center. This is such a powerful and important book!

Welcome to Hell

Punk Like Me

by JD Glass and Kris Dresen
Purchase: Amazon – Bookshop

This queer coming-of-age graphic novel immerses you in all the ways being a queer teen sucks — family who doesn’t understand, crushes who turn out to be straight, and never knowing if it’s okay to be queer while the world around you is straight straight straight. This historical fiction bildungsroman is so evocative of queer life in the 1980s! 

Punk Like Me

Celebrate 5 Years of Dissident Publishing with Street Noise at the NYPL!

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Street Noise Books 5 Years of Dissident Publishing New York Public Library

Join Street Noise Books this Friday, December 12 at 6pm! Dissidence and activism are core foundations of Street Noise Book’s graphic novel publishing program. Dedicated to raising up the stories and voices of BIPOC, queer, neurodivergent, and disabled people, the publisher celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. Street Noise Books is celebrating its 5-year anniversary with a panel featuring some of its top creators! 

This event will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, NYC in room 7C on the 7th Floor.

This roundtable with Street Noise publisher Liz Frances and authors Makee (Call Me Emma), Jesse Mechanic (The Last Time We Spoke), Bishakh Som (Spellbound), and Tracy White (Unaccompanied) with Badiucao and Melissa Chan (You Must Take Part in Revolution) joining remotely from Australia and Berlin, and Mohammad Sabaaneh (Power Born of Dreams and Eyes on Gaza) joining remotely from the West Bank, will feature a discussion on what it means to be an activist publisher and author today — and how we all work to change the world for the better on local and global fronts. 

There will be books and stickers and buttons given away.

Exclusive Preview: Hybred is a story of staggering poverty, drugs, and violence and of an artistic child who finds beauty in the ugly and sublime hope in our conflicts

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Set in a future-adjacent, alternative Los Angeles, this is a story of staggering poverty, drugs, and violence and of an artistic child who finds beauty in the ugly and sublime hope in our conflicts. Hybred, by Jamie Mustard and Francesca Filomena and published be Street Noise Books, is out in shops this November.

Hybred shows us how in our most marginalized communities lies an astonishing amount of genius which goes unnoticed and is so often tragically wasted.

Nine-year-old Johnny James lives in The Casque, the poorest neighborhood in Greater Angeles, where he shares a one-room apartment with his mother, stepfather, two brothers, and an army of cockroaches. He spends his days in the sweltering heat of the neighborhood, at the movie theaters, playing tackleball, or drawing – but there’s no money for him to go to school.

As death, addiction, and violence swirl through the neighborhood, Johnny grows up with friends, adventures, and magic around him. And he discovers how to use art, beauty, and personal strength to transcend the forces destined to hold him back.

Jamie Mustard is an artist, a futurist, and a writer with a focus on perception in the physical world. Growing up in severe poverty and illiteracy in inner city Los Angeles, Jamie overcame obstacles to graduate from the London School of Economics. He currently works as a strategic multi-media consultant, teacher, interdisciplinary art, design, and product futurist. He is the winner of The National Indie Excellence Award as well as the OWL Outstanding Works in Literature Award for his book, The Iconist. And his memoir Child X was published by BenBella Books.

Francesca Filomena is an Italian artist working internationally in design and print. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leece, Italy and won first prize at the International Red Paper Kite Illustration competition in 2020. Francesca is the illustrator of the picture books Hoping for You, Aster, The Wire, and The Girl Who Was Nearly a Flower.

Order Hybred now from Bookshop, Amazon, or your local comic shop or bookstore.

Hybred

Exclusive Preview: The Last Time We Spoke

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The Last Time We Spoke by Jesse Mechanic and Street Noise Books is an emotional and heartbreaking memoir of the author’s lifelong struggle with his mother’s death from cancer.

Grief never goes away.

When he was a teenager, Jesse Mechanic’s mother passed away after a long struggle with cancer. In this memoir, he looks back on that time, and on the ways that experience followed him throughout his life. Struggling with school while dealing with attentional problems and the overwhelming tsunami of grief, this book tells the story of Mechanic’s slow work to figure out a life for himself. It’s about obsessive-compulsive disorder, intrusive thoughts, and depression—straight-A’s turning to straight F’s, and smiles to blank stares. It’s about what loss can teach us, and how trauma can be both debilitating and beautiful. It’s about standing in dark rooms for long enough for your eyes to adjust.

And graffiti. It’s about that too.

With powerful visuals and thoughtful, poignant text, this graphic memoir challenges readers to keep going in the face of the hardest times.

Jesse Mechanic is an opinion columnist, essayist, and artist. He has published work in Mother Jones, In These Times, HuffPost, Truthout, and other publications. Jesse enjoys woodworking, the television show Cheers, and working diligently to dismantle the various oppressive systems that define our world. The Last Time We Spoke is his debut graphic novel.

Purchase: Bookshop – Amazon

The Last Time We Spoke

Street Noise Book’s Hybred by Jamie Mustard and Francesca Filomena explores Childhood Poverty and Lost Potential

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Hybred

Set in a future-adjacent, alternative Los Angeles, Hybred is a story of staggering poverty, drugs, and violence and of an artistic child who finds beauty in the ugly and sublime hope in our conflicts. From writer Jamie Mustard and art by Francesca Filomena, Hybred shows us how in our most marginalized communities lies an astonishing amount of genius which goes unnoticed and is so often tragically wasted.

Nine-year-old Johnny James lives in The Casque, the poorest neighborhood in Greater Angeles, where he shares a one-room apartment with his mother, stepfather, two brothers, and an army of cockroaches. He spends his days in the sweltering heat of the neighborhood, at the movie theaters, playing tackleball, or drawing – but there’s no money for him to go to school.

As death, addiction, and violence swirl through the neighborhood, Johnny grows up with friends, adventures, and magic around him. And he discovers how to use art, beauty, and personal strength to transcend the forces destined to hold him back.

Out November 18, 2025 from Street Noise Books, get your copy from Bookshop, Amazon, and more.

Preview: You Must Take Part in Revolution

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You Must Take Part in Revolution

(W) Melissa Chan (A) Badiucao
In Shops: Mar 05, 2025
SRP: $23.99
Purchase: Bookshop – Amazon

It’s 2035. The US and China are at war. America is a proto-fascist state. Taiwan is divided into two. As conflict escalates between nuclear powers, three idealistic youths who first met in Hong Kong develop diverging beliefs about how best to navigate this techno-authoritarian landscape. Andy, Maggie, and Olivia travel different paths toward transformative change, each confronting to what extent they will fight for freedom, and who they will become in doing so.

You Must Take Part in Revolution

The Murder Next Door is a graphic memoir that explores trauma that stays with us & how it impact us

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When Hugh was ten years old, he walked home from school to find his friends next door crying outside – they had just come home and discovered their mother’s body. She had been murdered.

Now an adult, Hugh has a happy social life and a successful career as an artist in Oakland, California. But even so he is plagued by anxiety, anger, and panic attacks. As he attends therapy and looks back on his childhood, he comes to realize the trauma and stress that the murder next door had on his life, and how it still affects him today.

Does trauma ever go away? Or does it just hang around, in the backs of our minds forever? This thoughtful, powerful memoir explores how one event in childhood can make a permanent mark on someone’s life.

Story: Hugh D’Andrade
Art: Hugh D’Andrade

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Bookshop
Amazon

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

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