Lucas Soto & Samuel Soto-Saines’ Street King- a Debut YA Graphic Novel

Lucas Soto and Samuel Soto-Saines‘ The Street King, is their debut YA graphic novel about “17-year-old Manny Valdez—years after witnessing his father’s death in an MMA match—as he grapples with grief and trauma while rising to stardom as an eSports star in a bid to secure enough prize money to save his uncle’s arcade” and the graphic novel is aimed at fans of Haikyu!!, In Real Life, and Fence.

Mark Podesta at Henry Holt has acquired The Street King to be published in the autumn of 2025. Their agent Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world English rights.

Sam Soto is a latino comic artist based in the Pacific Northwest. His work is heavily influenced by his lifelong love of manga and anime. It’s been his dream to be a published creator of Manga in the west. In 2019 he graduated with an MFA in Comics from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He most recently had a short story published in SaturdayAM as part of the 2021 Summer of Manga event. Sam collaborates on all his comics with his brother Lucas Soto, who is the writer.

Henry Holt and Company is an American book publishing company based in New York City and one of the oldest publishers in the United States. It was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypold and currently, the company publishes in the fields of American and international fiction, biography, history and politics, science, psychology, and health, as well as books for children’s literature. In the US, it operates under Macmillan Publishers.

Jennifer Azantian established Azantian Literary in 2014 and focuses primarily on fiction across genres for MG, YA, and Adult readers. She represents bestselling and award-winning writers and is always on the lookout for new talent. She is currently open for children’s graphic novels (young reader through YA) across genres and is looking for emotionally complex projects from contemporary to fantasy and everything in-between, with a particular soft spot for inter-generational stories, immigrant stories, and magical realism.

Lucas Soto and Samuel Soto-Saines‘ The Street King, is their debut YA graphic novel about “17-year-old Manny Valdez—years after witnessing his father’s death in an MMA match—as he grapples with grief and trauma while rising to stardom as an eSports star in a bid to secure enough prize money to save his uncle’s arcade” and the graphic novel is aimed at fans of Haikyu!!, In Real Life, and Fence.

Mark Podesta at Henry Holt has acquired The Street King to be published in the autumn of 2025. Their agent Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world English rights.

Sam Soto is a latino comic artist based in the Pacific Northwest. His work is heavily influenced by his lifelong love of manga and anime. It’s been his dream to be a published creator of Manga in the west. In 2019 he graduated with an MFA in Comics from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He most recently had a short story published in SaturdayAM as part of the 2021 Summer of Manga event. Sam collaborates on all his comics with his brother Lucas Soto, who is the writer.

Henry Holt and Company is an American book publishing company based in New York City and one of the oldest publishers in the United States. It was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypold and currently, the company publishes in the fields of American and international fiction, biography, history and politics, science, psychology, and health, as well as books for children’s literature. In the US, it operates under Macmillan Publishers.

Jennifer Azantian established Azantian Literary in 2014 and focuses primarily on fiction across genres for MG, YA, and Adult readers. She represents bestselling and award-winning writers and is always on the lookout for new talent. She is currently open for children’s graphic novels (young reader through YA) across genres and is looking for emotionally complex projects from contemporary to fantasy and everything in-between, with a particular soft spot for inter-generational stories, immigrant stories, and magical realism.