Paul Cornell's Festive Friday Newsletter

My End of Year Titles List

I thought that, given this is the last Newsletter of the year, I’d list all my publications for 2025. It’s a way to give myself a little pat on the back and to remind anyone nominating for awards what I’ve had out there.

11th February: ‘Disambiguation’ (Short story in the Of Shadows, Stars and Sabers anthology).

19th March: Short comics story with art by Dennis Calero in the L.A. Strong charity anthology.

13th August: Reprint of my Young Avengers issues in the Epic Collection: Dark Reign compendium.

16th August: Commando #5881: ‘The Longest War’ with art by Steve Yeowell

8th/11th September: Who Killed Nessie? with art by Rachael Smith (Zoop and Avery Hill editions).

9th September: Gnomes of Lychford (novella).

14th October: The Lychford Collection #1 (collecting the first three novellas).

13th November: Marvel Age of Comics: The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s.

Plus, of course, I started my own comics company and a podcast with Liz! Maybe not the most prolific of years (I already know next year will be better) but an artistically satisfying one.

I’m on the Official Marvel Podcast!

Here I am chatting about my Avengers book!

Stolen Face

Lizbeth Myles and I have done another commentary track for a Hammer blu-ray box set! Stolen Face (1952) is a neat little black and white thriller, and we found lots to say about it! It’s out on 16th February, and you can read all about it and pre-order it here at Hammer.

The Lychford Collection 2

Up for pre-order now, and out on 16th June next year is The Lychford Collection 2, featuring my fourth, fifth and sixth Lychford novellas!

Monarch: The Lost Adventures Pre-Order!

I’m one of a whole bunch of comickers contributing to Legendary Comics’ Monarch: The Lost Adventures, a graphic novel anthology which tells stories in the continuity of the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters TV series. (And we stick very closely to the lore.) My story, which I loved writing, concerns Bill Randa’s wartime encounter with the Ion Dragon, and is wonderfully rendered by Drew Zucker and Brad Simpson on art and colour art. The anthology is out on 14th July, and is up for pre-order now!

Sophie Aldred in Salvation’s Child!

Winter is Coming has a big article on Doctor Who’s Sophie Aldred appearing as the clone warrior army the Partheni in the graphic novel my company Cosmic Lighthouse is publishing next year: Salvation’s Child.

Salvation’s Child is the graphic novel Prologue to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s best-selling SFF novel series The Final Architecture. (So new readers can start here!) It’s by Adrian himself, artist Mike Collins, colour artist Pippa Bowland and letterer Simon Bowland. We’re publishing it together with our partners ComiXology.

In that article you can see lots of panels featuring Sophie, and read quotes from everyone involved.

Check out these pre-order links at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

And you can find Cosmic Lighthouse at these links on BlueSky and Instagram.

Salvation’s Child will be released by ComiXology Originals on June 16th, 2026!

Get Signed and Personalised Copies of My Work!

I’ve re-stocked my Ko-fi online store, with all my current works, which you can get cheaper than anywhere else, plus you can have them signed and personalised! Right now, it’s just for UK residents, but that’ll change as I sort out international postage.

Of Intrigue and Espionage

I have a story in this just-announced forthcoming volume from Stars and Sabers publishing, which is due out in October 2026. I’m in good company, as you can see from the full announcement here.

Telefantasy Time Jump (including our Christmas Special!)

The new podcast from me and Lizbeth Myles covers the history of SFF on TV, from 1953 onward, with our regular episodes (on the 14th of every month) covering a show released that year in the UK, and the Patron Bonus episodes (on the 28th) covering a show from the rest of the world. The shows for December (covering 1964) are Studio 64: The Crunch/Bleep and Booster and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And on the 21st we’ll be releasing our Christmas Special, which will feature, every year, us watching a Christmas episode of a show in the date range we covered in the previous year, in this case The Avengers: ‘Too Many Christmas Trees’. The main episode is available free wherever you get your podcasts. To get the bonus episode, you need to follow us on Patreon at £3/$3 or above. (And you get access to seven years of Hammer House of Podcast bonus episodes!) You can find all the info here.

My Linktrees

You can now find all my social media links, my website/blog and links to where you can buy my books, in one place here, thanks to Linktree!

My Week

The Vicarage Christmas Party went splendidly, with people from all my different worlds colliding, including a good number of fellow creators who’d travelled to join us. As usual, I went from room to room circulating and introducing people, which is possibly my absolute favourite thing to do. Thomas was up for the party beforehand, but when faced with a houseful of people withdrew to his room with a plate of party food.

He’s been having a lovely week, with a stellar report card (nothing less than a B across the board) and a great attitude. He gets off early today, and then we’re off to the Arboretum for the Christmas Lights, listening to the radio on the way to hear who has the Christmas Number One, an annual tradition.

I feel that, in general, I’ve had a very healthy festive season, taking energy and joy from all the little differences in texture between December and a regular month. The Advent Calendar podcasts make me feel connected to my friends. The actual Advent Calendars (my lacto-free chocs and Tom’s Lego City) offer a treat every day. The quality of light isn’t just the lack of very much of it, but a murk with powerful associations to jingle bells and carols. There have been a few dark clouds, but none I can share with you. I’m even popping out to the pub for a quick one for half an hour every evening. I have also managed to keep up my word count on the Official Sequel Novel, and have actually got several late commissions, meaning there are going to be quite a few things to announce next year.

In the last few days, Mike Collins has delivered his final pages for Salvation’s Child, and very lovely they are too. The colour art and lettering still have to be finished, but what with our designer already onboard, I feel we’re almost certain to make our deadline for delivery at the end of February. Then you get to see it this summer!

One negative in all this, mind you, has been the confirmation that my old Nissan Leaf electric car is irreparable (and indeed, dangerous, they’ve isolated it at the garage because of water in the battery area). I’m going through the business of arranging it to be collected for recycling. Let’s hope the garage are happy to have it hanging around until after Christmas!

To Be Continued

This is the last Newsletter of the year, but I hope to see you all again in 2026, on Friday, 2nd January!

Until then, Merry Christmas to all our readers!