Back at my desk, lots of work at once, and many announcements to make, so here we go...

I've arranged with the BBC and the organisers of Newcon in Northampton (11th-12th October) to premiere clips from my Afternoon Play adaptation of Iain Banks' 'The State of the Art' at the event. That'll be at 6.30pm on the Saturday night, and hopefully Iain himself will be on that panel to talk about the project. This is a preview way in advance of the play itself, which is due to be broadcast at 2.15pm on 6th March, 2009 on BBC Radio 4. Info about the convention here:

http://www.newcon4.com/newcon/main/default.aspx

On Wednesday 15th October, I'm going to be part of a panel at BAFTA in London, the title of which is 'Thinking Out of the Box: TV in a Multi-Platform World'. The blurb says: 'The internet and mobile media have opened up a new age of programme making - viewers can carry elements of their favourite TV programmes with them in their pockets, watch on demand or view content exclusive to the new media channels. But is it so new, and more importantly, how does a programme commissioner ensure quality and consistency across the different technologies? In this discussion, a panel of television industry insiders will aim to answer these questions and to offer some practical guidelines to you about how you can formulate your ideas and develop programme pitches that can be successful in the evolving TV landscape.'

Goodness, am I an industry insider? We're in the David Lean Room, starting at 7pm, and non-members can book tickets at the bottom of this page:

http://www.bafta.org/calendar-month.html?Gdate=20081001000000#1018

For £5 before the end of the month, £7.50 after.

The weekend after next (October 4th-5th) is the Birmingham International Comics Show. I'm going to be on a panel on the Saturday, hosted by my chums the Geek Syndicate, beside Mark Buckingham and Dave Gibbons. That should be a friendly and bouncy affair. Here's the schedule:

http://www.thecomicsshow.co.uk/events.htm

I have a new interview up, answering reader questions about Captain Britain and MI-13, here:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18183

With three pages of lovely Leonard Kirk art in progress from issue six, the first part of 'Hell Comes to Birmingham'. Mind you, watch out for art spoilers for the end of issue five!

And I'm pleased to announce that this Saturday, I'll be the stand-in MC for my home town's leading music evening, the Fifteen Minute Club, from 7pm in the Crown inn, Faringdon, Oxfordshire. The Club now has a website:

http://www.15minuteclub.co.uk/15_minute_club_001.htm

With a photo gallery of many of the bands that have played there over the years, including my wife's act, Both Feet Forward. I'm really rather nervous!

And finally, here's a video by the wonderful Andrew Liddell, presenting, in a very witty way, every instance of... a certain phrase... cropping up in Doctor Who:



I hope to see some of you at the events above. Do say hello. Until then, Cheerio!

This week, on Wednesday/Thursday depending on which side of the pond you're on, issue five of Captain Britain and MI-13 will be in your comic shops. It acts as both an epilogue to 'The Guns of Avalon' and a prologue to 'Hell Comes to Birmingham', and features the lovely art of Pat Olliffe, who's doing this one issue, very much in the spirit of our established art style, to keep us absolutely on schedule. It's been great to get Pat's pages and Leonard's for issue six arriving in my inbox at the same time. Leonard's with us for the duration, don't worry!

Here's an interview with six pages of Pat's art from the issue, including the first appearance of Blade, and the fantastic Bryan Hitch cover for issue seven:

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18038

And as always, this blog will be the issue's letter's page, so let me know what you think.

In other news, I've got a piece about my continuing love for Doctor Who, which appears with a number of other nostalgic and glowing features on the same subject in issue 176 of SFX magazine, on sale October 22nd.. Do look out for it.

And I was delighted to encounter, at the weekend, these puppets, made and operated by Julia Houghton and Jason Lythgoe-Hay, of the Tenth Doctor and Donna. Not for commercial purposes, mind: these are labours of love. I've only seen one other like this, the work of the fabulous Mrs. David in New York.



I hope to see some of you in Birmingham, the weekend after next. Until then, Cheerio!

Those of you reading this on Blogger may have noticed some changes to the page design recently: check out the list of blogs, the forthcoming projects covers (with links) and the poll on the right.

I pop in to say that I've just done a wide-ranging interview with the wonderful Charlie Jane Anders on the I09 website:

http://io9.com/5047015/doctor-whos-paul-cornell-tells-io9-why-darkness-is-overrated

And here's cover artist David Yardin's rather wonderful 'Marvel Apes' cover for issue five of Captain Britain and MI-13, which will be going out on the book as a variant:

http://marvel.com/comics/onsale/lib/view2.htm?filename=/comics/onsale/covers/0908/CAPBMI005_cov(ape).jpg

He's also doing us a zombie variant cover for issue six! Until next time, Cheerio!