Paul Cornell’s Friday Newsletter

For 2nd August. Lots of new events, plus my SDCC!

My Worldcon Schedule

I’m looking forward to heading up to Glasgow next week for the World Science Fiction Convention. Here’s what I’m up to:

Friday, August 9th:

10am: Not Just Superheroes (Gala), with Alison Sampson, Ed Fortune, Geoff Ryman and Kieron Gillen. “Comics such as The Department of Truth, Once and Future, Hexagon Bridge and I Kill Giants occupy a creative ground between DC/Marvel and the literary graphic novels of Alison Bechdel or Joe Sacco. This is a chance to talk about some of the best darned comics of the last few years--and to look at the aesthetic matters and means of production of independent, 'author-owned' comics.”

2.30pm: Autographs (Hall 4).

Saturday, August 10th:

10am: Table Talk (Hall 4). You can sign up to join me at a small table of people.

11.30am: Comics Can Save your Life (Alsh 1), with Deena Mohamed, Errick Nunnally, Helena Nash and Paul Carroll. “Jack Kirby once famously said ‘Comics will break your heart.’ But comics and a shared love of comics can play many positive roles in people's lives, as therapy, as community, and as a means of creative exploration. Join us as our panellists share the love they've found in loving comics.”

And of course I’m up for a Hugo Award, so I’ll be at the ceremony!

If you’re going to be there, do say hello.

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Three New Events

On Friday, 16th August at 6pm, I’ll be appearing at Faringdon Library in Oxfordshire, to chat about my work. Tickets cost £2, which includes a glass of wine or a soft drink. To reserve one email Faringdon.library@oxfordshire.gov.uk or call 01367 240311 or just show up on the night.

On Saturday, 14th September, I’ll be a guest at To Be Continued, a comic art expo in Bedford.

And on Saturday, 26th October, I’ll be a guest at the London MCM Comic Con.

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The Complete(d) Saucer Country is in Stores in September!

The Syzygy/Image edition of The Complete(d) Saucer Country, which has an entirely different design from the Zoop crowdfunded edition, will be in comic and book stores on September 4th, and is now available for pre-order from Amazon!

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We’re Going Back to Thought Bubble!

Lizbeth Myles and I will once more be running at table at the great Thought Bubble comics convention in Harrogate on 16th-17th November! I’m looking forward to meeting once again so many lovely comics fans.

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The Death of Wolverine

As announced here on ICv2, on 27th November Marvel will be releasing an omnibus edition of the Death of Wolverine storyline, featuring not only the miniseries of that name, but also my entire run on the comic. I’m very pleased that all this material will now be available in one volume.

There are going to be two covers, this regular one from Alex Ross…

And this direct market exclusive version from Joe Quesada.

It’s available to pre-order on Amazon, and at all good bookstores and comic shops.

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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.

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Hammer House of Podcast

Hammer House of Podcast, in which myself and Lizbeth Myles watch the Hammer horror movies in UK release order, is out on the 13th of every month, with our July episode being about The Woman in Black. These modern Hammers will take us until the end of the year, and then we’ll be announcing our sequel podcast!

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.

(We loved this movie. This is the ‘old style’ art poster referred to in the episode.)

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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!

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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!

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The Work of Friends

My friend the comics writer Fred Van Lente is Kickstarting Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games with artist Tom Fowler and colour artist Bill Crabtree, and as you’ll see if you click on the link above and see some amazing pages of games documentary art, it’s going very well. (You can also see a large sample of the finished book here.)

And my friends at Pocket Universe Productions are also running a successful Kickstarter right now, with their John Carter of Mars audio drama series, starring Sean Patrick Flanery, also already funded! If you like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ brand of high adventure, then do check this out! (There are role-playing game supplements amongst a whole bunch of extra reward levels.)

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My Week(s)

So, before I get to SDCC, Thomas’ last day of primary school was kind of muted. He got his shirt signed by some of his classmates, and as he came out onto the playground, he decided he wanted to get a photo with his class teacher like some of the others were doing, but just as he stepped forward to do so, a parent rushed forward with her own child, phone in hand, and it was too much for Tom, who ran for the gate. I looked over my shoulder at a school that had tried so hard to include him, and had had so many splendid successes in doing so. He, as is his way, didn’t look back at all. He had his jigsaw to get back to.

As always, the hugeness of San Diego Comic Con daunts me when it comes to writing anything about it. The con floor, perhaps alongside the Thought Bubble floor, is the place where I feel most alive. Peers and audience, work and fun, all together in the same energised space where new creative projects are born. I love the cool of the morning at the Marriott poolside before the sun hits the curve of the giant buildings above. I love the trolleybus stops that turn the whole city into part of the ‘gameboard’ of the convention. I love walking crowded streets where everyone has a lanyard. I had twenty business meetings across the Thursday to the Saturday (and I was left afterwards rather daunted with the sheer number of pitches I have to write and projects that are now in progress) with Sunday reserved for fun and shopping, though in truth I’d been so targeted this year in the latter that I’d done most of my exclusive-hunting before the last day.

On the Wednesday I went along to a lunchtime meet-up of the hosts of the San Diego Comic Con Unofficial Blog, mostly to say thank you to them for providing incredibly detailed run-up coverage that makes the convention experience so much deeper. On the Thursday night I went to three comics parties in a row: a bar; a loft and a hotel rooftop for the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund mixer. (The latter is where you’ll find everyone from the industry giving door donations to a vital cause, and, as if this were the 1990s, I was actually invited to pitch, there and then, to a dear editor friend who prefaced the moment by buying us both double whiskeys.)

(Friendship bracelet given to me by the SDCC Unofficial Blog.)

The Friday, however, was when the sort of thing that only happens at San Diego happened to me. I’d been invited to be snuck into Hall H for the gigantic Doctor Who panel, with Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson and Russell T. Davies. I was having a great time in the reserved seats, with my old boss Julie Gardner right behind me (they made it snow in the hall as soon as Millie started speaking!), but then audience questions began, and the first one was about the canonicity of Richard E. Grant’s Doctor. Russell said something that had me nodding vigorously in agreement, that Doctor Who doesn’t have a canon, in that he thinks it’s important that the show doesn’t decide what ‘happened’ and what didn’t. Then he mentioned that he’d put Grant’s face in the episode ‘Rogue’ as a gesture to me, noting that I was an old friend. He asked if I was in the audience, and got me to stand up and wave to 6000 people. Readers, I have rarely felt so recognised.

(The sheer size of that audience.)

(And here’s what we were looking at.)

After that, I popped into the Scribe Awards, where it was great to see my friend Jody Houser enter the room late and be immediately applauded for just having won a trophy for her Critical Role comic. That evening was more parties, including one where I was stopped by the big boss of a particular comics franchise who said he was a fan and asked me there and then to write for him. (I’m still dreaming, right?)

I had time to visit some offsites like the Energize Lounge (disappointing space, nice coffee), the pop up D&D store (mostly about the animated show, which isn’t my thing) and the joint Doctor Who/Star Trek costume display (really wonderful, with actual costumes and detailed notes).

(The 12th Doctor’s costume.)

(Captain Kirk’s uniform from The Wrath of Khan.)

(Notice the window of the bar recreating the Winchester from Shaun of the Dead.)

(The Those Who Are About to Die offsite recreated the grandeur of the Circus Maximus… around an existing public video screen that had to remain in place!)

(The Doctor Who booth on the con floor had a lovely visitor experience where you left with a video of you running in through these Tardis doors!)

(The Marvel games people brought an actual ferris wheel.)

I also saw friends launch projects on the Ahoy and Star Trek comics panels. And I socialised like nobody’s business, seeing groups of my fellow freelancers for much supportive carousing. For five days we run like packrats through the streets of this created city, then return to balconies and bars with our hauls to compare gossip. Such an existence. A freelancer’s life for me. I did 20,000 steps every day for four days, and by the end of it my belly had shrunk so much my shorts were falling off. It’s a great pleasure to me that my health held up across that onslaught. My mental health was definitely buoyed up by the whole experience. For the first time at a San Diego I felt the opposite of imposter syndrome. I felt plugged in, that I belonged here. I lay on a lounger in the cool of that morning on the last day feeling… young!

(General Urko on a charm offensive.)

(This X-Men ‘97 sentinel flew along by radio control.)

(There really is an action figure for everyone on the convention floor.)

(The view from the escalator as one descends into the Convention Center with the first crowds of the morning.)

(The Hilton ‘wrap’ shows just how big these Kap Media building displays get.)

(The moon above the glorious Trek flag that flew over us that weekend.)

(I love the Convention Center in the morning.)

But you know what the best thing of all was? As I was walking out on the rialto, as it were, one bright San Diego morning, I got a text message seemingly from myself. It contained only a photo of a completed jigsaw puzzle. A moment later another came through, and I realised the message address was because my account also covered my son’s iPad. The second message just said ‘Love, Thomas.’

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To Be Continued

I’ll be at Worldcon next Friday, so there’ll be another gap I’m afraid, but I look forward to seeing you all again on Friday, 16th August (which is the day when I’ll be popping out to Faringdon in the evening, so if you’re local do remember to come along). More convention photos will be featured!