As part of Tiny Onion’s growing Artists in Residence program and published by Image Comics, the new project marks Bidikar’s first time solo writing a series
Acclaimed letterer and writer Aditya Bidikar (The Department of Truth, Everything Dead & Dying) and rising star artist Som (Crocodile Black) will be crawling In Your Skin in a new body horror comic book series produced by James Tynion IV’s production house Tiny Onion and published by Image Comics. Fans of The Substance, Perfect Blue, and David Cronenberg films will love this unnerving and erotic twisted tale that explores celebrity culture, identity, and image, set in a Bollywood world. The first issue will debut this April.
In Your Skin marks the solo writing debut for Bidikar, who is a part of Tiny Onion’s growing Artists in Residence program which also includes Eisner Award-winning colorist Jordie Bellaire (Exquisite Corpses), Tyler Boss (You’ll Do Bad Things), and Tate Brombal (Everything Dead & Dying). In addition to writing the series, Bidikar will also be lettering it himself, designing a brand new font just for the series. Edited by Eric Harburn, the talent lineup for In Your Skin will also include colorist Francesco Segala, color assistant Gloria Martinelli, and designers Dylan Todd and Courtney Menard.
In In Your Skin, Priyanka is a Bollywood uber-fan who has been obsessed with film star Ayesha Sen since she was a kid—she’s watched her movies over and over, and knows her dances beat for beat. But after a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet her idol goes awry, and Ayesha announces her impending retirement from movies, Priyanka decides that if Ayesha isn’t going to live the life she’s supposed to, Priyanka would be more than happy to take over for her…
“Aditya Bidikar is one of my favorite collaborators, and as an inaugural Artist in Residence here at Tiny Onion, we’re thrilled to help bring his debut series as a writer to life in all its skin-crawling glory,” said James Tynion IV. “Alongside the incredible talents of Som and Francesco Segala, In Your Skin is a raw, unflinching horror story about fame and fandom that only these creators could tell.”
“When James and Eric first proposed the Artist in Residence program to me, I pitched them In Your Skin as my dream project—a gruesome, charged story set in a world we haven’t seen yet in comics—assuming they’d pass on it and we’d settle on something more toned down and fun,” said Bidikar. “But not only did they agree to make this book exactly as I wanted to, I’ve been lucky to have the entire Tiny Onion team backing me up, and working with me to make this the best and gnarliest book we could.”
“In Your Skin was like jumping into a threesome with your current love, comics, and a shared mutual love, film,” said Som. “It was the perfect opportunity for me to pay my homage to the city, Mumbai, the Bollywood that I grew up on, and my love for body horror! And I can’t imagine a better partner in crime than Aditya. Both of us think alike in many ways, and have the same influences…it was as if we were tuned with the same tuning fork!”
Bidikar added, “Priyanka and Ayesha have lived inside my head for the last five years, but they only became real when Som drew them. Som is an incredibly talented artist, of course—he throws himself fearlessly into his art, and adores a challenge—but he also happens to be intimately familiar with Bollywood as an industry, having worked in it for many years. It’s been a blessing to have an artist who I can trust to get all the tiny references I make in my scripts, and who adds his own knowledge, lived experience of India and Bollywood, and storytelling prowess to make this world real.”
In Your Skin #1 will be available at comic book stores on Wednesday, April 22.
About Aditya Bidikar
Aditya Bidikar is known as an award-winning letterer for comics from DC, Image, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios, Oni Press, and many other comics publishers. He mainly works in digital comics lettering, integrating hand-drawn sound effects and text design into his work, but he has also hand-lettered two graphic novels and designed his own lettering fonts. As a writer, he has previously published several short comics and prose stories, and has also written comics-related essays for Eisner Award-winning journalism outlet PanelxPanel. He lives and works in Pune, India.
About Som
Somnath Pal is Mumbai based Superani artist, known for work that blends emotional restraint with unsettling imagery. His recent foray into comics (Crocodile Black) from film and animation allowed him to explore human fragility and quiet absurdities through his drawings. When not drawing he’s mulling over where to source his perfectly roasted coffee beans from, while quietly plotting world domination from a dark corner of his studio.