Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

I’m Doing a Games Event in January

On January 18th, I’m going to be on a panel at Narrative Design and Trends Forecast for 2024, a Game Republic event in Leeds. If you’re a member of Game Republic you can get in free, and if you’re not, tickets are on sale at that first link. The other panelists are bigtime games creatives, and I gather there are still some more to be added. If you’re in the industry and seek to mingle, check it out!

Saucer County: The Finale will be in Comic Stores (with Preview Pages!) and Zoop Edition News and Comic Store Exclusive!

Those of you who didn’t back our incredibly successful Zoop crowdfunding campaign will be relieved to hear there’s going to be a comic store version of the conclusion to Saucer Country, the UFO mythology comic by myself and artist Ryan Kelly that survived two cancellations. This concluding issue wraps up the whole story and answers all the mysteries. Courtesy of Chris Ryall’s Syzygy company, it’s being published by Image and will be in comic stores on February 7th. But you can bet that almost the only way it’s going to appear in your local store is if you pre-order a copy with that store right now!

Zoop backers should rest assured that the version they’re getting (if they ordered the separate Finale comic rather than the Complete(d) graphic novel) is very different in design, a very limited edition item that will be easily distinguishable from the store version.

You can see the Previews entry for the issue, and see the first four complete pages, here.

“First there was Saucer Country, a dark thriller that blended UFO lore and alien abduction with political intrigue, all set in the hauntingly beautiful Southwest. The story continued in Saucer State... and now, the series reaches its long-awaited conclusion in this special one-shot, as co-creators Cornell and Kelly present the final story of alien abductee Arcadia Alvarado's campaign to be US President... and her search for the truth of what happened to her!”

The Zoop comic and graphic novel have left the printers, and are at the Fulfillment Centre (seriously), so they should be being sent out to you very soon. Thanks again to everyone who supported us. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

And if you get your copy from Bird City Comics, you can get this exclusive textless cover variant by Peejay Catacutan, only available from them!

Con and On Collected Edition

The collected edition of Con and On, with all five issues plus some lovely extras, will be out from Ahoy on 26th March, and is now available to pre-order from these links at Amazon UK and Amazon US. (And here it is at B&N.)

Witches of Lychford: Fantasy Cricket

That’s the title of the second and final new Lychford novella that paid subscribers to this Newsletter started recieving in serial form yesterday. (Because of Substack’s platforming of Nazis, I’m getting rid of the paid option when this serial is completed.) Episodes of the new serial will appear, as with the previous ones, at 5pm UK time on the first four Thursdays of every month.

If you subscribe now, you get to read all of the previous episodes, that is the whole last novella, Night of the Gnomes plus the Christmas Special Don’t Forget to Catch Me, as well as getting the new episodes going forward. It’s $8 (or the equivalent in your currency) per month, or $80 per year.

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, and now I’ve set up shipping to a range of international destinations.

Similarly, I’ve now re-stocked my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices, a Doctor Who item or two and, err, a guide to learning Japanese!

Hammer House of Podcast

Hammer House of Podcast, in which myself and Lizbeth Myles watch the Hammer horror movies in UK release order, is (usually) out on the 13th of every month, with our December episode being about Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (with special guest the urban fantasy author Melissa F. Olson). You can get these episodes free wherever you normally get your podcasts, as well as on our site, but if you sign up to our Patreon, for any sum of money from £1/$1, you get an extra episode every month too, on the 27th, in which we watch Patron requested movies and films from other horror studios of the same era.

(The early days of cut and paste.)

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 of Friends

Two friends of mine have work in Comicon’s Best Digital/Webcomics of 2023 list! Both P.J. Holden’s Null Space (for which I wrote the Christmas strip) and Rachael Smith’s Nap Comix are well worth your time, and it’s great to see them getting recognition.

And on the subject of webcomics, my Modern Frankenstein colleague Emma Vieceli has a new series upcoming, Gods and Graces, which looks amazing. She’s signing up subscriptions now.

My Week(s)

I had an extremely restful three nights from Christmas Day onwards, as, having delivered her usual huge workload of festive services, Caroline went down to her folks for a few days, taking Thomas with her. Previous years have been a bit monklike for me during this time, but in the last twelve months I’ve gained a bit of a social life, so I spent some of these evenings at my local, and also a gorgeous two hours on Christmas Day itself, when the pub opened for that little window in the afternoon. Walking down the road from my house, I heard the crowd before I got there. The place was packed, with friends so many of my worlds in this little town. I found myself talking to friends and friends of friends and people who were probably friends of someone, in the most warm and welcoming Christmas experience. And then I went home and, just for once, watched the Christmas Day schedule on BBC1, from the King to Doctor Who. That was such a lovely feeling of being part of something, of society, of civilisation. That’s always the antidote to doom for me, knowing other people, understanding how other minds are feeling, and the common ground we all have. It was much the same on New Year’s Eve, when, with Caroline and Tom back, I ventured out to said local and then to the Cricket Club, where my rubbish team were having a social evening and had created a cocktail named after our social club. (This stuff is where Lychford comes from.)

I also caught up with For All Mankind and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and watched loads of old movies from the comfort of my sofa.

Alll in all, across this time, I actually managed to get a proper rest, doing hardly any work at all. And thus, from the start of this week, I’ve been really putting the hours in, delivering new drafts of #2 and #3 of a creator-owned comic that hasn’t been announced yet, plotting and writing Lychford and another comic, and working on a pitch for a new novel. I’ve also cut out alcohol for January, and have resumed my 10,000 steps a day, aiming to rein in the excesses of the festive period.

The vitamin B12 supplements I’ve been taking have had a really positive effect on my dizzy spells, to the point where I can go a whole day without experiencing one. I’m now hoping a second round of blood tests will establish that a lack of that was the problem, and enable me to get everything back on track again.

All in all, global events aside, I find myself hopeful for the New Year. It’s going to be a huge one for Thomas, with a move to senior school. I have a very big meeting set up in February, and there’s another enormous TV thing on the horizon too.

A happy new year to you and yours!

To Be Continued

I’m also very much looking forward to the Gallifrey One convention in February and the Glasgow Worldcon in August (plus San Diego in the middle!)

I look forward to seeing all of you again next week.