Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Stolen Face is Up for Pre-Order Today!

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 up for pre-order today, and you can also read more details, here at Hammer.

Marvel Panel in Oxford in December!

On Wednesday, December 10th at 5.30pm I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion at Blackwell’s in Oxford, chiefly about my Marvel Age of Comics book on the Avengers. I’ll be joined by Jason Atomic and Owen Michael Johnson and we’ll be interviewed by Sarah Miles. Tickets cost £6 and are available here, where you can find all the info. (I’ll be happy to sign things after the panel.)

Sophie Aldred in Salvation’s Child!

While I was away, Winter is Coming did 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!

Now that Thought Bubble has gone, 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

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 November (covering 1963) are Doctor Who and The Outer Limits. 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!

The Work of Friends

Lizbeth Myles has a book coming out! Where We Stand, Where We Fall: The Poilitics of Doctor Who is now up for pre-order from Herne Books (and you can get 30% off through an offer on that first link!) I’m so looking forward to reading this!

Rob Williams has written the screenplay for a movie! Game, a tense indie thriller about someone who finds themselves trapped in an upturned car, is in UK cinemas now. You can read loads about it at that link. It’s been BBC 6 Music’s Film of the Week (you can hear the review around 1 hour 41 mins in). Do seek it out!

Chrissy Williams’ new graphic novel Golden Rage: Mother Knows Best (‘Battle Royale meets The Golden Girls’ is out now, and she and colourist Sofie Dodgson will be doing a signing for it at Gosh Comics tomorrow, Saturday 29th November, at 1pm.

Simon Birks and Willi Roberts have a new horror comics series coming out: The Thing on the Doorstep is a five issue miniseries based upon the classic tale of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft and will hit shelves from Image/Top Cow in February 2026. Much more at the link, and you should order from your local comic shop now!

Cecil Castellucci has a new short story out in Air/Light magazine. ‘The Lost Film’ is a story about a woman whose life is marked by a film that she saw when she was young that has become a lost film. It's a hybrid story with graphic elements by Thit Bitsch with whom she "reconstructed" the story. The film is real, Men of Tomorrow (1932), a most wanted lost film for the BFI.

And I was delighted to offer a blurb to Mr. Jones’s Smoking Bones, a graphic novel from B7 Media written by Iqbal Ali, with art by Priscilla Grippa.

“London,1867. The East India Company has fallen, and a smoking skeleton is killing ex-company members. A drug-addled Indian detective with a deep-rooted hatred of the British Empire is drawn into the investigation and enters a world of secret societies and the occult.”

It’s really an extraordinarily well-told work, clearly the product of some amazing new talents. Do take a look at the link and see what I said!

My Week

Much quieter than last time, of course! After you read the last Newsletter, I popped along to the place where I get my monthly sports massage. It’s sheer pummeling, but it helps get my right shoulder and that side of my neck back to something like they should be after my poor office chair posture has tensed them up. (Now I’m playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle especially I’m trying to sit up, and feeling the benefits of that.) The woman who does the massage also gets really into how one’s life is going, and I hear about hers as well. It’s a counselling role, and I really appreciate the working out of stress on an emotional as well as physical level.

On the Sunday, I went to my local comic shop, Proud Lion in Cirencester, and picked up four of my subscriptions: The Mary-Sue; Star Trek: The Last Starship; High Strangeness and John Le Carre’s The Circus: Losing Control, all of which are excellent. I was pretty dubious about the last one, but Le Carre’s very interior world and the rhythms and themes of his novels have been replicated excellently. And as to the Trek: there is nothing more Kirk than this title, and it’s an absolute treat if you love that universe.

I’ve been back at the authorised sequel to the classic children’s novel, having been sent some very encouraging notes about the half-manuscript, and also this week, as well as some exciting Zoom meetings, I’ve sent off a short story in the world of spinoffery and an introduction to the collected volume of some comics. I’ve also got back to my exercises big time. So all in all, a productive week.

Thomas seems happy with the return of his routine, also. I’m hearing up to five songs from him while I’m still in bed. He’s got some big numbers rehearsed! But will there ever come a concert?

To Be Continued

Next week I’m meeting an old friend, and there’s the Festive Market to look forward to!

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