Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Excelsior Comics Signing!

I’ll be signing, alongside so many other great creators (12 of us in all!), at Excelsior Comics, 51-53 Merchant Street, Broadmead, Bristol, BS1 3EE, on Sunday 16th March, from 2pm. If you’re in the area, do come along and say hello!

The Mighty Avengers Vs. the 1970s

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. (Release date, etc., TBA.) 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 as you can see below, I’m in very good company with the other launch titles in the Marvel Age of Comics range!

L.A. Strong! (Now With Preview Pages and Launch Event!)

I have a strip, with art from the great Dennis Calero, in L.A. Strong, a charity comics anthology in support of the victims of the L.A. fires, out from Mad Cave on March 19th. The line up of comicker talent is extraordinary, as you can see below. You can order a copy, and read all about it, here and you can see an exclusive preview, including many finished pages, at The Beat, here.

And if you’re in the UK, you can order a copy from Forbidden Planet mail order here. 

There will be a launch event for the book on Saturday, March 22nd, from 7pm, at the Revenge Of comic store in Los Angeles. You can find all the details here.

Ace Jacket

I’ve contributed a short story to this anthology in aid of autism charities, edited by Sophie Aldred and Shawn J. Levy. It’s out on June 17th. You can read all about it and pre-order a copy here.

Award Longlisting for ‘The English Astronaut’!

My three-part comics serial for 2000AD with artist Laura Helsby, ‘The English Astronaut’ has been longlisted for in the category of Best Shorter Fiction in the British Science Fiction Association Awards! You can see the full listings here, and, if you’re a BSFA member, vote!

Gnomes of Lychford

On 9th September, Tor.com Publishing is releasing the sixth book in my Lychford series of rural fantasy novellas, Gnomes of Lychford. It’s a re-editing of the serial I ran on this newsletter, and I’ve taken the opportunity to sort out a couple of little plot problems.

I think it’s my best Lychford book, and, weirdly, it’s a great jumping-on point, because everything about the series is explained at the start.

You can read all about it here.

“An unlikely group of supernatural creatures terrorizes the sleepy village of Lychford. Okay, they're gnomes. That's not a spoiler: you worked it out it from the title. When an ancient prophecy clashes with an unfortunate modern design aesthetic, the people of Lychford must band together to put out fires (both literal and metaphorical) to save their town before the king of the Gnomes (King Greg, and it's dangerous to laugh at a gnome) calls in the terms of an old promise. Trouble is: no one knows what the promise is, nor how to fulfil it. It's going to be a long night.”

Telefantasy Time Jump (Patron Bonus Episode Out Today!)

The new podcast from me and Lizbeth Myles has just released its first Patrons-only episode. We’re covering 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. This month’s shows, from 1954, are Nineteen Eighty-Four and the French/German Flash Gordon.

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.

For Your Awards Consideration (Hugo Awards Now Open!)

The project I’ve had out in 2024 that I’d like to put forward for any award nominations you might be considering this year is The Complete(d) Saucer Country by myself and artist Ryan Kelly, published by Image. (It’s weird not to have put out anything that would qualify for the Scribe Awards, but having had a Hugo Awards Best Graphic Story or Comic run last year I might have a shot there.) Thanks very much for considering it.

And for Best Fancast in the Hugos, I’d like to mention Hammer House of Podcast! Thanks!

My Ko-fi and eBay Stores

I’ve re-stocked my Ko-fi store, where you can buy my books and comics, signed and personalised, for shipping worldwide.

Similarly, I’ve now re-stocked my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices.

Find my Books at Bookshop.Org and Help Out Indie Booksellers!

Bookshop.org is a collective selling tool that sets up a marketplace for all indie bookstores in the UK, functioning exactly like Amazon, except you’re supporting your local bookshop. You can find a selection of my books here, and I get a little cut of the proceeds too if you order from here!

My Linktree

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!

The Work and Causes of Friends

Lots today!

First off, my friend the Star Wars and many other things writer Adam Christopher has a friend back in his native New Zealand who’s suffering from bowel cancer, and needs a lot of funding to continue her treatment. Please check out her fundraising page here.

Secondly, my friend the comics artist (and now musical writer) Emma Vieceli has a single out! ‘It Starts Small’ (featuring Ben Clark) is the first music to go public from what’s going to be a new musical, Unfolding, and it’s already won the Stiles and Drewe and Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) 2024 Best New Song Prize. (I should warn you that it’s a very emotional song about a real life issue and it had me in tears.) You can find it here on Spotify and here on Apple Music and every play helps!

Thirdly, my friend the SFF writer Gareth L. Powell has a new novel out! Future’s Edge is available from all good booksellers! ‘An excellent read’ - Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Fourthly, my friend the novelist C.E. Murphy has a new novel out under the collective Zoe Chant psuedonym. Peacock on Parade sounds like a lot of horny fun.

Fifthly, my friends Cat Davies and James Moran, already the creators of a number of award-winning films like Blood Shed have a new short funding now. Rubbers, starring Rosie Holt and Oskar Odiakosa, is the story of a neurodivergent woman who… loves stationery too much. You can find out more and see the trailer here.

My Week

Sorry if this is a bit of a rush, but as you’re about to hear, I’ve got a lot to do today! It’s been a week of hard work, some of which was unexpected, and I’m delighted by it, because this is what the good times are like for a writer.

On Wednesday, a friend in the business recommended me to a producer, for a thing that needed to be pitched this coming Monday, and reader, I’ve got there! (Well, I’ve got a few little things to do on the final draft of the pitch document today, but they really are small.) I also finished to their satisfaction a pitch for another producer, also due in on Monday. Also today I’m sending in the second draft of the Avengers book, which again I’m on course to do. And I also kept working on the TV pitch.

Alongside all that, and I think it’s helping, I’m now regularly working out to the Mvmnt app, the training sessions for which seem very precisely targeted, and include warm-ups and cool down, so I’m not left unable to move. I’ve challenged myself a few times, and all in all it’s leaving me happier and fitter.

Tonight, mind you, is the monthly pub quiz at my local, so some of that hard work will be set back, but I’m trying hard to note and celebrate these breaks from a routine that, with a small autistic boy who loves his regular repetitions in the house, are all too rare.

So it was wonderful to get away for a couple of days last week, having scheduled that week’s Newsletter, to London, where Liz and I spent a blissful time visiting museums, eating good food and going to see two amazing shows: the new Much Ado About Nothing (incredibly fun, incredibly faithful to the text) and The Play That Goes Wrong (an enormous pile-up of laughter). That interlude made me feel better about the whole world.

To Be Continued

One of those two more big announcements should be coming in the next few weeks! Until then, I hope to see you all next week!