Through Hail to a Book Launch
A remote studio, in fragments
One of the odd things about being a small, remote-working publisher is that not every part of the job happens in the same place, or even in the same country.
Soi Books is spread across London, Brussels and Jakarta, which means a lot of what shapes the business arrives in fragments. A conversation here, a launch there, an exhibition, a bookshop visit, a message sent back from one city to another. We are not all in one studio sharing the same references in real time. Instead, the studio gets built across distance, through what each of us notices and brings back.
Arriving at Librairie Flagey in Brussels — hailstorm survived, launch ahead.
A launch in Brussels
This week, that meant Ryo cycling through a hailstorm in Brussels, with a five-year-old in tow, to get to a graphic novel launch at Librairie Flagey.
The book was Des ronds de serviette pour l’Antarctique, the debut bande dessinée by Padhen, an illustrator and familiar face from Palazzo, the creative co-working space where Soi once had a base in Brussels. He made it there, survived the queue, got the book, and came back with the kind of report that says everything in a few lines: hailstorm, bike, signing, book secured. Now just the small matter of learning French to read it.
At the signing table. Padhen meeting Ryo and his son and signing copies.
Antarctica on the page
The book follows Padhen, a 23-year-old illustrator who leaves Brussels to join a mission for the French Polar Institute at Dumont d’Urville station in Adélie Land, Antarctica.
What makes it interesting is not just the setting, but the mix of scales. There is the expedition itself, the science, the climate crisis, the practical realities of getting there and living in an extreme environment. But there is also the more intimate story underneath it: doubt, ambition, and the uneasy feeling of wondering whether you really belong in the life you are stepping into.
That feels especially right for graphic narrative. Antarctica brings the scale, but the human story keeps it grounded.
Padhen, Des ronds de serviette pour l’Antarctique (Les Arènes BD) — a debut graphic novel set against the vast scale of Antarctica.
Good timing
The whole thing felt oddly well timed for us. We are currently working on our own first graphic novel, Cimarron, inspired by the life of Dwayne Fields, whose story also moves through endurance, survival and cold climates.
A full room. Readers queuing for a debut graphic novel.
Very different books, obviously, but enough of a rhyme there to make the moment land a little harder. Sometimes you notice these things more when you are already deep in the questions of how adventure, hardship and inner life can work on the page.
Showing up still matters
It was also a reminder that publishing still depends on people physically turning up. Going out in bad weather. Queuing in a bookshop. Buying the thing. Seeing who is there. Feeling what kind of energy a book has once it leaves the screen and becomes real.
For a remote business like ours, those moments matter even more. We are not always in the same room, but the work is still shaped by what each of us encounters where we are.
Sometimes that looks quite ordinary from the outside: a bike ride through hail, a queue, a signed copy brought home.
But that is often how a publishing culture gets built.
Book secured: Des ronds de serviette pour l’Antarctique by Padhen.
