Paul Cornell’s Friday Newsletter
For 1st November.
Eating the Fantastic
Scott Edelman’s long-running podcast in which he interviews SFF writers over a meal features two authors at Glasgow Worldcon in next month’s episodes, myself and Gareth L. Powell. If you fancy having some fish and chips with me, check out his, err, feed here.
How to Find Us at 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. And this year I’ve once again got guest status, which is a lovely gesture.
And they’ve just told us where our table will be. We’re going to be at A14 in the DSTLRY Hall, next to Rachael Smith!
Do drop by to see us!
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.
The Sequel to Hammer House of Podcast is… Telefantasy Time Jump!
Lizbeth Myles and I have just about completed our seven year journey as curators of the Hammer House of Podcast, with our final episode, a Christmas Special, coming out in December.
So, on January 13th, we’ll be starting our new podcast, Telefantasy Time Jump. It’s going to be about the history of fantastic television in the UK, going year by year, starting with 1953. (But we’ll be talking in the first episode about all the shows that came out before that date.) Each episode one of us will pick a UK series from that year for us to watch two examples of, and the other one of us will select a show from the rest of the world in that year to talk about on our extra monthly episode for Patreon supporters. (Everyone who’s at the £3/$3 level or above.)
If you’re a current Patron of HHoP, you don’t have to do anything (except set your patronage to the £3/$3 level if you want the extra episode). The HHoP Patreon site will simply turn into the TTJ site and memberships will be carried over. If you get HHoP through a podcast app, you may have to re-subscribe, but we’ll get into that as 2025 approaches.
HHoP will be leaving Twitter/X as soon as the podcast is finished. (I envisage our team of weirdies leaping on an ancient carriage driven by Christopher Lee that gallops off out of there.)
You can now find the new podcast at these links on Instagram (where it’s /telefantasytimejump/) and Bluesky (where it’s TelefantasyTJ.bsky.social).
I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved in our seven year run, and I hope you’ll follow us to our new monthly home!
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. (These will also be coming along to Thought Bubble!)
The Current 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 October episode being about The Lodge.
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. (But you now might want to sign up at the £3/$3 level to get the bonus episodes for our sequel podcast!)
(That particular incarnation of Hammer made some great movies.)
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 comicker friends of mine are launching titles at Gosh Comics in London soon.
Next Wednesday, 6th November at 6pm, Alison Sampson will be signing the Sleeping Beauties Deluxe Remastered Edition.
"The official graphic novel adaptation of the horror novel by Stephen King and Owen King provides a haunting interpretation of the chilling, timely bestseller.
A bizarre sleeping sickness called Aurora has fallen over the world. Its victims can't wake up. And all of them are women. As nations fall into chaos, those women still awake take desperate measures to stay that way, and men everywhere begin to give in to their darkest impulses.
Meanwhile, in the small town of Dooling, a mysterious woman has walked out of the woods. She calls herself Eve and leaves a trail of carnage in her wake. Strangest of all, she's the only woman who can wake up.
This deluxe edition also includes a full cover art gallery, character designs, and notes from the creators discussing the process of adapting the story into graphic novel form with spotlights on specific pages
Collects all 10 issues by writer Rio Youers (The Bang Bang Sisters), artist Alison Sampson (Winnebago Graveyard), and colorist Triona Farrell based on the novel by Stephen King (The Institute, The Stand) and Owen King (Intro to Alien Invasion)."
You can read more about the event and order signed copies here.
And on Saturday, 7th December at 1pm, Emma Vieceli will be signing the third volume of Breaks.
“The final volume in the enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation is here...
School is over, adult life beckons, and new beginnings lie before Ian and Cortland as their relationship deepens. But when Ian's father is released from prison, questions of trust and deceit threaten to tear them apart.
The boys will walk a dark path together as the shadows of the past try to claim the present. The answers to all their questions will be revealed in this final volume, and some may prove dangerous beyond their wildest imaginings...
With millions of views and thousands of subscribers on webcomic platforms, Breaks is perfect for fans of popular LGBTQ+ graphic novels, such as Alice Osman's Heartstopper, who might be looking for something darker and more mature.”
You can read more about the event and order signed copies here.
My Week
So, first off, phew, my biggest ever meeting got rescheduled. It’s now on November 20th, so lots of time for the anxiety rollercoaster to head upward again.
I enjoyed my appearance at MCM, while kind of feeling it wasn’t really the ideal con for me. The panel went hugely well, with a big audience who were interested in my whole career, so I couldn’t have asked for more there. Not many people at the signings, but one of them said I’d changed his life by getting him to read, so, hey, that makes everything worthwhile. The overall lack of comic-ness got me down a bit. People talk about SDCC not having enough comics content (and I’ve been saying for years that that’s nonsense, what with sixteen streams of it in the smaller rooms) but compare that to any event outside the US with ‘comic con’ in the name… still, the audience seemed to be having a great time, and the inclusion of YA novels alongside manga is clearly where the field is, and should be, right now.
(Photos by Brian Schirmer.)
It’s Thomas’ half-term holiday, so Caroline and I have been sharing out the childcare and trying to take him out on various trips. On Monday I took him bowling, which was a mixed success, Thomas enjoying the experience of knocking over the pins, but having difficulty with the weight of the ball. As I was paying for the tickets, however, I noticed him watching, and starting to encourage, two boys playing air hockey. That sociable attention is completely new for him. I was amazed. This is what his new school has achieved already. So after the bowling we played air hockey ourselves, and Thomas enjoyed that too. Then it turned out Pizza Hut cheese and tomato pizza wasn’t plain enough. On Tuesday we went to Longleat, and that was frankly joyous, with Thomas leading us to see his favourite animals (the otters being a big favourite) and taking photos of them with my phone. I had the idea of getting him a Longleat calendar for his bedroom wall next year, and he absolutely loved it, consulting it immediately and continuously. As always, the play castle was a bit stressful, with too many exits. Thomas exited at the wrong one too, not at where I’d said to meet, but he found us, so that was okay. He’s getting to an age where it’s good to let him have this independence of enjoying things alone, but waiting for him in a busy environment is still an incredibly tough thing for me. He crashed a bit after that, but as always enjoyed the monkeys leaping onto our car. Wednesday afternoon and evening there was a bit of a meltdown over something trivial, but he eventually ran round and round until he’d just about calmed down. That was a tough one, honestly. Still, we’ve all survived the experience pretty well, now Nanny Louise has moved on to her new job.
Last night I took Thomas trick or treating, which went well. He got rather more Haribo than usual, which was good, because most years he just gathers sweets he won’t eat. About half as many houses were open to being visited, though, which might be about how tough times are, or might just be because we went an hour earlier.
In the gaps of these holiday days, I’ve still been revising for my two books, reading three issues of a comic and 30 pages of a novel, the latter of which I finished yesterday. Now I have to write a pitch. I’m itching to get back to actual writing. This will, of course, be a lot easier in term time.
Boo!
To Be Continued
Soon the Thought Bubble prep will begin! I’m looking forward to seeing lots of you there.
And I hope to see you all here again next week!