Paul Cornell’s Friday Newsletter
Paul Cornell’s Friday Newsletter
The Complete(d) Saucer Country is Out! And it's Tom's first week at Big School!
The Complete(d) Saucer Country is Out Now!
The Syzygy/Image edition of The Complete(d) Saucer Country, which has an entirely different design from the Zoop crowdfunded edition, is now in comic and book stores worldwide, and is still available for pre-order from Amazon! (Which has it in stock on September 17th.) This wonderfully-designed volume includes all 20 issues of Saucer Country and Saucer State, plus the new Finale from me and artist Ryan Kelly, completing the story!
To Be Continued Convention Next Week
On Saturday, 14th September, I’ll be a guest at To Be Continued, a comic art expo in Bedford. I’ll be doing panels, signings, and running a game show with celebrity guests!
London MCM Comic Con
On Saturday, 26th October, I’ll be a guest at the London MCM Comic Con, doing panels and signings!
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.
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.
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.
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 August episode being about The Quiet Ones. 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.
(It’s really not based on the terrifying true experiment.)
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
My friend the comics artist Alison Sampson (Department of Truth) is getting together her commission list for MCM, Thought Bubble and New York Comic Con. If you fancy asking her to create some specific original art for you, now’s your chance! You can find all the details here.
And my friend the novelist and audio writer Eddie Robson has a new story, ‘The 6% Squeeze’ in Uncanny Magazine, which you can read online for free here. (It may resonate especially for those of us in the creative industries.)
My Week
So Thomas went to his first day of Big School on Wednesday. It’s a specialist school for autistic children, and rather than walk and bike to it, it’s a drive, so he was a little worried about ‘my times changing’. He also asked me, a bit wobbly-lipped, ‘when I get in the hall, how will I know where things are?’ Caroline and I both came with him, and he was stoic at first, but then a bit tearful and shut down as we arrived. But a number of teachers and teaching assistants we’d already met came out to meet him, and when he was invited to come with one of them, he went. The school were kind enough to phone during the day and tell Caroline how well he’d done. ‘He’s had a lush day’ the TA who’d phoned said to me when we picked him up. And indeed he was a lot happier, and brought home some colouring he’d done, which is now on the fridge. On the second day, he was still a little nervous, but way better than on the first day, but was pretty wound up and snappy in the evening, needing everything to be absolutely routine and quiet, beyond his usual needs. (That’s pretty much to be expected when he has to deal with a load of new stuff during the day. Home is there to balance it out.) This morning he was still a tiny bit nervous, and I’m waiting for some sort of general verdict from him, but all in all it’s going pretty much as well as it reasonably could be, so that’s a relief.
The impact on me, however, has been pretty weird. I found myself in tears yesterday about my inability to configure a new bit of tech. I think because my own senior school was such a place of torture, I’m deeply fearful for Thomas, and kind of waiting for the moment something bad happens to him. The situations are so enormously different, but my brain was formed in that horror show, and I can’t help but react the way I do. It’s quite odd for me to be startled by my feelings, though. I think maybe in order to keep the calm that Thomas likes I’ve been holding a lot of stuff in.
Work-wise, there were two very exciting comics-related Zoom meetings this week. I’ve dived back into the novel, and have been motoring along with it, trying to get back to 2000 words a day. I have an audio plot to re-draft this morning, on deadline, and I’ll have to start making serious notes on a non-fiction book about comics history that I’ve been commissioned to write. I have longer work days now, but I’m also back on my full exercise regime, so I don’t have long to mope. Thomas will make me happy with his successes, I’m sure. He always does.
To Be Continued
I’m looking forward to this section next week! And I hope to see all of you then.
As the parent of any child with additional needs, you can only do your best. I have three autistic kids, two of whom have left school now, but I utterly feel that anxiety and fear you’re describing. It sounds like you’re all doing well anyway, though you need to keep an eye on yourself as well - that’s the bit that I still forget all too often.