Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Who Killed Nessie? at Gosh tonight!

Who Killed Nessie?, the graphic novel by myself and the great Rachael Smith, is out now

You can read all about it, and see lots of sample pages, here.

And you can order it here, direct from the publishers, Avery Hill, from Amazon UK and Amazon US, and it’s in all good bookstores, physical and online!

And tonight, Friday, 10th October at 7pm, Rachael and I will be participating in the Avery Hill Publishing Triple Launch Party at Gosh! Comics in London!

The Lychford Collection is Out Next Week!

Up for pre-order, and coming out next Tuesday, 14th October is The Lychford Collection, which contains my first three Lychford novellas.

I’ve Written the Intro to Archaic!

Archaic is a wonderful Spielberg-style comics adventure from Ahoy, about a single Mom who inherits a mysterious (sentient) island, inhabited by the gods who no longer have worshippers. It’s written by Melissa F. Olson, with art by Sally Cantirino and colour art by Gab Contreras, a creative team I have a whole truckload of respect for. And, having read and adored the series when it came out in single issues, I was very much onboard to write the introduction to the collected edition, which is out now! “Come for the Mesopotamian goddess of the dead, stay for the 9-yr-old who saves the day w/birdwatching skills.”

You can find many different ordering links and read more here. I recommend this reading experience!

The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s is Out in November! (Now with Video!)

On November 13th, I’ve got a book coming out from Bloomsbury that’s part of a new range of popular studies of Marvel Comics! The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s is fully illustrated with panels from the comics, and is my journey through how Marvel’s main super team navigated that difficult decade. You can read the announcement here at AP News. This is very much a labour of love for me, a book I’ve wanted to find a way to write for the longest time.

And you can now pre-order it from the publisher (and from all good booksellers), now with some preview pages at that link that really show off our full colour art!

I’m a guest at Thought Bubble!

Lizbeth Myles and I will once more be tabling at the wonderful Thought Bubble comic convention in Harrogate on November 15th and 16th.

And those lovely people have given me guest status!

And if you’re an aspiring comicker, and want a pro to check out your portfolio, I’m one of many at the show who’s signed up to do just that! Check out all the details at the link.

And Vision & Labour: Making Comics, The Art Of Avery Hill Publishing is an exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate which is going to be running between 18th October and 26th April. (Neatly over the weekend of Thought Bubble.) To quote from the press release:

‘Harrogate’s Mercer Art Gallery has teamed up with indie publisher Avery Hill Publishing to create an exhibition showcasing some of today’s most exciting comics creators. Opening in October in time for this year’s Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, the exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into the work of leading comic artists, and an important snapshot of the UK comics landscape over the past decade.’

And included in the exhibition will be a display case featuring the process of Rachael Smith and I making Who Killed Nessie?!

I’m really looking forward to it, and I very much want a copy of Kristyna Baczynski’s poster below.

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.

Cosmic Lighthouse and Salvation’s Child

Check out the new website for my comics company Cosmic Lighthouse, with a first glimpse at Sophie Aldred (Ace in Doctor Who) playing Adrian Tchaikovsky’s cloned soldiers The Partheni!

Cosmic Lighthouse is the brainchild of myself and Lee Harris, with Anthony Cronin helping out with the day to day business. I’m the Editor-in-Chief.

Our mission is to publish original graphic novels by bestselling SFF authors.

And here, via this news story at IGN, where you can see lots of preview pages, is our launch title!

Salvation’s Child is the digital 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.

It’s 110 pages of comics, plus extras, at what we think is quite the wonderful price. (Under a fiver!)

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

You can read more about the company and the project, with biogs, blurbs and histories, in our press release here.

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!

Telefantasy Time Jump

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 October (covering 1962) are Fireball XL-5/Out of this World and Space Angel. 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 Ko-fi and eBay Stores

Here’s my Ko-fi store, where you can buy my books and comics, signed and personalised, for shipping worldwide. And here’s my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices.

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! And here’s the one for Cosmic Lighthouse!

The Work of Friends

I don’t know anyone involved, so perhaps not ‘friends’ this time, but a company whose work I adore is in financial difficulties and needs your help. TwoMorrows has lost $65,000 in the Diamond Distributors bankruptcy, and now has no hope of recovering the cash. So they’ve organised a donations website in an attempt to soften the blow. They publish Back Issue Magazine, which is dear to my heart, RetroFan, The Jack Kirby Collector, and many other books and magazines that fans adore. Do take a look here, and donate whatever you can spare.

And you remember that musical I went to see, and loved, the other week, Unfolding? Creator Emma Vieceli has made a selection of the songs available on SoundCloud. Check it out!

My Week

I’m pleased to say this has been a much happier week. It’s been incredibly busy, in that as well as my daily wordcount on the as yet unannounced official sequel novel, I’ve had to take the older car in for an enormous service, which, as far as I can tell, has pretty much rebuilt large chunks of it. (But now at least I know it’ll get me to Thought Bubble.) One worrying moment was that last Sunday, exactly where the week before’s road rage incident had happened, taking Thomas back from our weekly trip to the Arboretum, I passed a supermarket entrance, only to see a group of four bikers pull out behind me! I actually thought for a few minutes that they might have been the same group, waiting for me, but they turned out to be not at all interested in pursuing me. That’s sheer paranoia, right? I mean, it’s incredibly unlikely that would happen, but that’s where my brain took me.

Thomas has been very happy, singing downstairs every morning before I get up, usually a recent hit, and clearly relaxed and thriving at school. He’s offhandedly taking on more and more responsibility, and making more and more choices for himself, which is great to see.

There’s something I wanted to mention: as I announced on BlueSky, I’m going to be starting a new paid serial via this Newsletter, probably in the next week or two. There’s a novel I wrote (the Ian Fleming does Mars book long-term readers heard a lot about) that only narrowly avoided being sold (lots of kind comments from editors), which I’m still very proud of. I feel that it could find its audience here. So watch for me promoting The Consolations of Mars soon. (The main Newsletter will always be free, this’ll be an optional paid extra post every week.)

To Be Continued

I hope to see some of you tonight. Do come along to Gosh if you can!

And I hope to see all of you here again next week!