Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Zoop Backers Will Soon Get Who Killed Nessie?!

If you were one of the lovely people who backed the Zoop crowdfunder by me and Rachael Smith for our graphic novel Who Killed Nessie?, said volume should be in your hands either next week or the week after!

Those in the UK who opted to pick-up their copy free of charge at the Destination Venus comic shop in Harrogate will be able to do soon around that time. We’ll email you when they get the shipment.

Those who opted for the Southern pick-up point, however, have had multiple problems with shops get in the way, and so I’ve already emailed all of you to collect your postal addresses. I’lll be sending those copies on to you personally.

If you opted for original art as part of your purchase, that will be arriving after you get your book, so please don’t worry it’s not in the same package. We’re arranging shipment of that now.

Thanks again for allowing us to make our book! We hope an entirely different design scheme and an entirely different cover from the bookstore edition will be a pleasing confirmation that you backed us first!

The Man in Black is Out Next Month!

Liz Myles and I have a commentary track on one of the forthcoming Hammer 4k box sets: The Man in Black, which will be released on Monday, 8th September. It was a great pleasure to be asked to do our Hammer House of Podcast thing for what we found to be a great movie. We had lots to talk about. You can see all the details and pre-order the set direct from Hammer here.

Gnomes of Lychford is Out Next Month!

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.

And you can now pre-order!

“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.”

And also up for pre-order, but now coming out instead on 14th October is The Lychford Collection, which contains my first three Lychford novellas. (Cover design for both by FORT.)

The Who Killed Nessie? bookstore edition is Out Next Month Too!

On 18th September, Avery Hill will be releasing a bookstore edition of Who Killed Nessie?, the graphic novel by myself and the great Rachael Smith.

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

And you can pre-order it here.

You can also pre-order it from Amazon UK and Amazon US. And from all good bookstores and comic shops.

The reviews are already coming in, including this lovely one from Monkeys Fighting Robots.

On Saturday, 20th September, from 1pm-2pm, Rachael and I will be signing the book (copies of which will be on sale) at Waterstones London-Piccadilly!

“A cosy comedy murder mystery… with a monstrous twist! Lyndsay Grockle has just started her new job at an isolated hotel. She’s trying to get over heartbreak. She’s amazed to be left in sole charge just before a big convention. When the terrifying guests start to arrive, she realises why: this is a gathering of the fantastic beasts of myth and legend! The attendees ask her to stay in her room and let them be. But when the Loch Ness Monster is found dead, there’s nobody else they trust to solve the murder. She may not entirely believe in them… but they believe in her! Lyndsay is going to have to dig deep into her own fears and vulnerabilities to discover… WHO KILLED NESSIE?”

The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s is Out in November!

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)!

Thought Bubble and the Mercer Gallery Exhibition

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

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

Cosmic Lighthouse is a new comics company, 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 in 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 August (covering 1960, with a new theme tune!) are Pathfinders in Space/Pathfinders to Mars and Thriller. 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!

My Week

To first resolve the cliffhanger: no, the car boot sale was not a wonderland of Bronze Age back issues this year, but instead had just one shortbox from which I filled three gaps in my Uncanny X-Men collection. There was also a stall with some interesting Doctor Who and nostalgia stuff, but as I was browsing, a friend of the owner approached and asked him if he’d be ‘at the march’ in London that weekend. The owner said yeah, not that he liked going to London, because, you know (shared chuckle). It’d be the vegans on one side and the real people on the other.

So I didn’t want to give him my money after that, and left with a glare. It feels this week like there are fascists all over. I drove Tom to his drum lesson today and found Union flags strung up on lamp posts and St. George crosses painted on roundabouts in the nearest big town. The flags are being distributed on an organised basis, a campaign in plain sight. Americans probably won’t get this, but the British and especially English national flags are only flown on big occasions, like the Coronation, or when national teams play. Then their context feels harmless, heartwarming even. Having one in your garden all year round is a sign over here of a certain sort of person. Putting them up all along a street is an intimidatory tactic. It’s ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Swastika’. Reform, the right-wing insurgence party that’s ahead in the polls (but not as far ahead as the fascinated media would have one believe) are stirring this pot. It’s what weighs on my catastrophising shoulders early in the mornings and late at night.

Still, it’s four years to the General Election. This feels too early, like they’re somehow hoping for a moment of national insurrection, as they seemed to do when Labour were elected and an army of Reform’s street thugs got arrested for burning city centres. And their incompetence in local government is something that’ll play against them as the contest gets serious.

Thomas has been weighing on my shoulders this week as well. He’s still doing great at his drum lessons (‘Mustang Sally’ today), but when the wonderful Nanny Louise offered us her brother’s old drum kit, he reacted to the news with anxiety, and when he heard it was coming over to the house he had a meltdown. I’ve thus snuck it in, without making a big deal about it, and got Hannah the drum teacher to talk up how great it’d be for him to have drums at home, and ask to see a photo. He went along with that, and once it’s put together I hope he sneaks off to play it. I’m frustrated that this thing he’s good at is going to be held back by his compartmentalising, but I’m also very aware that I don’t want to push him and spoil the whole idea of drumming.

Work-wise, it’s been hard to find the time this week (Tom goes back to school on Wednesday), and I’ve been concentrating on one particular comics pitch that’s taking up loads of time because I want to get it right. I’ve also been working on another comics pitch with Liz, and that’s going great.

The most positive thing this week though is that on Sunday I played for my social cricket team in a seven-a-side tournament. I scored 14 not out in my first game and 0 not out in the only other I played, that with coming on for just the last ball of the match. The 14 felt great. I feel I’ve found my old skill again, right at the end of the season. I bowled twice as well, and the first over was okay, but the second was all over the place. Still, I left that contest glowing.

To Be Continued

Next week it’s back to school! And back to that novel I’ve left aside for weeks!

And I hope to see you all again next week too!