Paul Cornell’s Friday Newsletter

The English Astronaut in 2000AD!

Prog #2367 of weekly UK comics anthology 2000AD is out now, and it contains the first part of my three part strip The English Astronaut, with art by Laura Helsby, colours by Matt Soffe and letters by Jim Campbell. It’s my homage to Moorcock, and I had an absolute hoot with this punky outburst. Laura’s art is fabulous. ‘Godspeed, you absolute stallion!’ You can get it direct from the publisher here, with free UK postage, or in your US comic store, but if you’re in the UK you can also find it in your local newagent or big supermarket!

Cover by Cliff Robinson.

Saucer Country: Finale is Out Next Wednesday! (And Zoop Edition News!)

Courtesy of Image Comics and Chris Ryall’s Syzygy line, Saucer Country: Finale, the concluding part of the multi-company UFO saga from myself and artist Ryan Kelly, will be in your comic stores next Wednesday, 7th February!

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!”

There’s also going to be a comic/bookstore version of The Complete(d) Saucer Country graphic novel out this autumn. More news as and when.

The Zoop edition of both books should now have been mailed out to all backers, and, after a low quality version was sent out in error, those opting for the digital version should now have their nice-looking copy too.

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!

Who Killed Nessie?

Who Killed Nessie? is the title of my forthcoming crowdfunding project from Zoop, with award-winning artist Rachael Smith, a comedy cryptozoological murder mystery!

And just look at this amazing cover!

Here’s what we’re pitching:

“Lindsay Grockle, a sceptical, rational young woman, agreed to be the manager of an isolated hotel in the Great Lakes to get over a terrible break-up that left her with zero self-confidence. Her partner was romantic, whimsical, a believer. And she kept telling him there were no such things as fairies. She arrives to find the former manager on his way out of the door, as if he’d been freed from a terrible burden. The rest of the staff have all elected to go on leave this weekend. Because this weekend is… the convention.

Lindsay doesn’t know what that is, but is pleasantly surprised when some charming, but eccentric patrons arrive, patrons who want to hide their faces or shelter under huge coats or all walk together in single file, as if they’re one long creature pretending to be several people. And there’s a just slightly too big cat that’s started to hang around. And the lake outside seems to have suddenly become both deserted of wildlife and weirdly choppy.

But still, Lindsay goes to bed in the hotel that night sure that her weird guests are having the best time she can provide.

She’s woken in the early hours by the cat, who tells her she has to come quickly. There’s been a murder.

Lindsay can’t quite decide which part of that to deal with first, the murder or the talking cat, but she’s quickly hustled to the ballroom, where, on the floor, lies the enormous corpse of… the Loch Ness Monster.

And around Nessie are gathered the convention attendees, now revealed as who they really are: legendary creatures from all over the world. There’s Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil and a Unicorn and a Succubus and a minibus-load of Yokai from Japan… and outside in the lake there’s the Kraken and many more water-based monsters. And the cat is actually the Beast of Bodmin. Or Bob for short. And oh dear there really are Fairies.

Every year, Lindsay is told, the cryptids gather here for their annual convention. But never has there been a murder. Suddenly, they can’t trust each other. They’ve locked the doors and prevented all external communication. The only person they can agree on to solve this mystery is Lindsay.

Who Killed Nessie?, a new graphic novel by Paul Cornell, the award-winning comics writer, and Rachael Smith, the award-winning comics writer/artist, is a comedy whodunnit about finding confidence through rationality and accepting a world of mysteries… by solving one.”

If you’d like to be alerted when the crowdfunder launches, and get first go at early bird offers and exclusives, you can sign up here!

My Gallifrey One Schedule and Subscriber Meet-Up!

I’m delighted to once again be a guest at Gallifrey One, my home from home Doctor Who convention, on 16th-18th February at the L.A.X. Marriott in L.A.. You can find a list of all the program items I’m on here. Really pleased with what I’ve got this year.

And one thing that’s not on that schedule is this year’s meet-up for Subscribers to this Newsletter, that is you, if you’re reading this! It’s at 11am on Saturday, 17th February, beside the Starbucks in the hotel foyer. I’m looking forward to chatting with you all!

Hugo Awards Eligibility

If you’re nominating for the Hugo Awards, there are two items of mine eligible that I’d like you to consider: The Witches of World War Two by myself, Valeria Burzo and Jordie Bellaire, in the Best Graphic Story category, and, in the Best Fancast category, Hammer House of Podcast from myself and Lizbeth Myles. Thanks!

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 have now started recieving in serial form. (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 January episode being about Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. 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.

(Emphasis on the top hat there.)

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!

My Week

The biggest deal for me this week was that I saw a consultant about my fainting/dizziness, an issue which I felt I’d cleared up entirely by taking B12 supplements. To my enormous relief, and that relief was so big it took me a couple of days to process it, he agreed, and has sent me a letter saying he feels this was an isolated incident and the underlying cause has been dealt with. Now I just have to use that to persuade the DVLA that I can drive!

But still, that’s an enormous problem that’s heading for the rear view mirror. Thomas, meanwhile, hit a new personal best with a score of 301 in two minutes on Times Table Rock Stars. That’s 301 correct simple multiplication sums in 120 seconds. I know I couldn’t do it. (The Guinness World Record, and yes I have looked it up, is 210 in *one* minute, so he’s about 75% of the way there.) The next morning in the playground I told Tom’s class teacher, and she came along the line waiting to go in to congratulate him. A couple of his classmates joined in, and Tom got a look on his face we never see at home, a sort of sidelong scrunched expression that combined awkwardness with the pressure of being the focus with pride at his achievement.

Another good thing that happened this week was that my agent sorted out what I’m going to be doing with a new novel. (There are still five publishers looking at the last one, but I don’t want to wait and see.) I’d sent her a couple of pages outlining an idea, and she, brilliantly, said that the set up was good, but she didn’t like the direction I’d taken it in when it moved into a larger arena. So I was able to chop it in half and come up with an ending that instead remained true to the setting and situation. (Phew, that was complicated! I’m going to do so well teaching that writing workshop at Gallifrey!) These are the small joys of the writer. (Oh, and I got to pitch to a TV commissioner, completely out of the blue, through an accidental encounter!)

And what with Saucer Country now getting to all our backers, and a digital provision situation fixed that had resulted in me waking up to angry customers, all in all I’m pretty happy with how that week turned out. I now have lots of stuff to write, and Liz is down next week ready for Gallifrey!

To Be Continued

I look forward to seeing a whole bunch of you at the Subscriber Meet-Up at Gallifrey One! (And maybe some at the writer workshop too?)

And I hope to see you all next week!