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The Substance meets fandom in In Your Skin, a new Image Comics series from Tiny Onion

The new Image Comics comic from Exquisite Corpses studio Tiny Onion mixes Bollywood and body horror

The line between fan and something more is a fine one, and how fine (and what the “more” might mean) is explicitly the space explored by the newest project from Something is Killing the Children and Exquisite Corpses studio Tiny Onion, launching this April — and the first issue will also launch the comic book writing career of acclaimed letterer Aditya Bidikar.

Bidikar will be joined by up-and-coming artist Som for the body horror comic book series In Your Skin, writing and letting the series (the latter including a brand new font designed purely for the comic). It’ll be his solo writing debut, which came about as the result of Tiny Onion’s Artists in Residency program, which also includes Jordie Bellaire (Exquisite Corpses) and Tyler Boss (You’ll Do Bad Things). The series will be colored by Francesco Segala with assists from Gloria Martinelli, and designed by Dylan Todd and Courtney Menard. Eric Harburn will edit.

In Your Skin — described by publisher Image Comics as an “unnerving and erotic twisted tale” that will appeal to fans of The Substance, Perfect Blue, and David Cronenberg — is about Priyanka; a Bollywood Superfan whose idol Ayesha San announces her retirement, leaving Priyanka thinking that perhaps it’s time for her to take over in a way few could suspect.

"I’ve been fascinated by Bollywood since I was a kid, because, unlike everyone around me, I never quite got the appeal,” Bidikar told Popverse in a statement. “Bollywood was the soundtrack of Indian life, and like an anthropologist, I watched people obsess over Hindi films, worshiping movie stars and contorting their lives to the romance they perceived in these films, only to be rudely awakened when reality didn’t conform to the narrative logic they’d grown up with. In Your Skin is my attempt to engage with the strange beast of Bollywood—the culture of celebrity, identity, of consumption and performance. It’s a messed-up place, but the only thing worse than being a part of it is to be left out."

In his own statement, Tiny Onion founder James Tynion IV said, “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. 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.”

The series launches from Image Comics on April 22. But if you can’t wait that long, take a look at the gallery below for an exclusive glimpse at interiors from the first issue.


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Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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