In Your Skin: Hit the Ground Running
So the last time I spoke with you folks (other than the day In Your Skin #1 came out) was before we got the pre-orders for the first issue. That was a while ago, so this one’s going to be a bit long. Bear with me.
April was … well, to be very honest, it was an absolutely chaotic month, but – mostly – in a fulfilling way. A whole lot happened – this was easily the busiest month of my year thus far, and I ended up in firefighting mode far more than I’d like. But a lot of good things happened too, and I’m grateful for them.
We got the pre-orders for In Your Skin #1, and thankfully, they were extremely healthy (more on this below). I also lettered – wait for it – a month’s worth of comics in the first ten days of April (sometimes, despite your best efforts, schedules don’t line up well).
I also wrote the final script for In Your Skin #4. The process was less-than-ideal. Before this, I’d always take a week off from lettering work, either go to a café or sit quietly at home and just work on the script. That wasn’t an option this time, with everything else, so I did the actual pro thing of writing the script for 1-2 hours at night after I was done with the day’s work, often working late into the night, so I could get it done in time for Som to start drawing it. I am quite happy with the script, thankfully.
And, I don’t know if I can quite convey how big a deal this is for me – this is the first full-length book I have finished writing (other than the extremely hacky horror “novel” I finished when I was 15 years old). As I mentioned in the last post, I’d made a quiet promise to myself when I turned 35 that I’d write and produce a full-length comic by the time I turned 40. It’s nearly a year late – I’ll turn 41 a few days after issue 4 comes out – but I’ve done it. This is something I’ll be taking stock of once I have some time.
I also needed to find a new house to move into – my landlord gave me notice to leave my current flat, where I’ve been living for the last nine years. I’ve managed to find a new one – it’s a slightly smaller place but in a quieter neighbourhood with more greenery. As it happens, I only get possession in the middle of May, when I’m going to be in New Zealand visiting friends. Less than ideal, again, but I’ll have five days to move once I’m back, and I’ve got K and a nice big gang of friends helping me out.
I also started doing something genuinely new, that I’ve never done before – I started making content for Instagram. This is partly an attempt to promote the book (we were supposed to start early in April, but the aforementioned chaos kept that from happening). This is something about which I’m likely to think out loud here in the future.
Some early thoughts, though – self-promotion feels like it’s almost dead on social media. I’ve been very lucky to have a sales and marketing mechanism around me for this book, but I’ve been contemplating how to continue promoting the book, and – beyond these next few months – myself as a writer.
The most dedicated audience I have is here – on the blog. Twitter is just sort of dead at this point unless you’ve got a huge following that’s already interested in you, BlueSky is fun, but way smaller. Instagram is a pretty big place, but it’s … complex.
I also don’t like doing self-promotion. In an ideal world, I do the work, and the audience that will like it finds it, whether it is through the publishing system or through word-of-mouth. But it’s no longer feasible to rely on this mechanism, so part of a writer’s (or any creator’s) job is to figure out how to find an audience and present them with what you’re creating.
My thought, at the moment, is to garner an audience that I might direct to this blog, or that I can at least make aware of my book. I exist at an odd intersection – I’m an Indian creator known for comics lettering, who is trying to make horror comics at the junction of comics, horror and India. There is a large theoretical audience for what I want to do, and I think it’s worth doing something on these lines to see if that’s the case.
I’m working with a couple of friends on this – one of them acts like a sounding board for scripts and directs me when we’re shooting, and the other edits the videos and helps with the B-roll (i.e. everything that’s not me talking). I’m giving this six months to see how it helps me and whether it connects me to the right kind of audience. At the moment, I’m mostly posting stuff to do with the book, but we’ll be branching out, starting yesterday with this reel about four body horror films that have stayed with me.
The most urgent thing on the docket, for the moment, is that pre-orders for In Your Skin #2 close today, Monday May 4th. I’m going to presume most readers here have read issue 1, and post the solicit text for issue 2.
Ayesha Sen feels trapped in her own skin. An aging actress in a youth-obsessed Bollywood culture, she can feel the control of her life slipping away – but when an obsessed fan lands on her trailer’s doorstep, she’ll soon find herself free of her old body. Is this just a new prison, or a chance at a new start?
As you can imagine from the summary, this one begins on Ayesha’s side of the equation.
And here are our beautiful covers by Som and DaNi.
Covers A and B for In Your Skin #2, by Som and DaNi.
Let your local retailer know you’d like to read issue 2. I’m not 100% sure how pre-orders on a second issue work – presumably the sales data for issue 1 is the most important factor, but I’m sure people letting them know they’d like to continue reading the series is helpful.
The final issue of the series – i.e. In Your Skin #4 – has also been solicited. Once again, I’ll desist from posting the story summary this early, but here are our gorgeous covers.
Cover A, as always, is by Som, and Cover B, this time, comes from the incredibly talented Nimit Malavia – I lettered a story by Nimit a very long time ago, and have wanted to work with him again ever since, and I’m delighted that I was in a position to get some beautiful art made by him. You can also, with these images, see the lovely evolution of Dylan’s logo over four issues.
In Your Skin #4 comes out July 29th, and concludes the series.
So far, I’m happy to say, In Your Skin has received very positive reviews. Beyond the reviews, multiple people have told me they picked up the book because a friend recommended it, or because their local comics store had it in a featured section, or a member of the staff recommended it to them. This is my favourite kind of promotion – one you can’t engineer.
We were in the AV Club, Comics Beat, Fangoria, Capes and Tights and Comic Book Club Live lists of most anticipated comics for April 2026.
In the week of release, we were featured in the Yeti Picks of the Week,
Zac Thompson called this “One of the best new #1s I’ve read in a while.”
Kieron was kind enough to write about it in his newsletter:
[In Your Skin] is a creepy and deeply atmospheric story about fame, obsession and horror. Significantly horror. It’s really nice work, heavy with awful sensuality and need, and is worth your time.
Here are excerpts from some of the reviews we’ve received. You can click through to the links to read the complete reviews:
Bidikar’s debut comic as writer is an excellent showing. He’s got a great sense of pacing and story development, with clear voices to distinguish characters from one another.
[…] Som’s artwork, colored by Francisco Segala and Gloria Martinelli, is great throughout. He’s got a hypnotic sense of pacing, building and building tension and letting it simmer beautifully throughout the series.
In Your Skin #1 is a stunning yet disturbing look at how we build idols and what we do to get close to them. While Image Comics has been putting out some incredible work lately, this is a standout in both the creative team and the chilling yet compelling concept.
Aditiya Bidikar weaves a fascinating tale of obsessive horror and self-destruction by Priyanka as she looks for any way she can to get close to Ayesha, to get “in her skin” if you will. There’s an insidious undertone to how the narrative moves along with its overt creepiness the deeper we get into Priyanka’s obsession. All of this builds to the issue’s climax which sets the tone for the rest of the series.
Somnath’s (SOM) artwork is equal parts gorgeous and grotesque. The depictions of body horror are rightfully unsettling while the quiet moments building up to it have their own cloud of dread over them partnered with Fracesco Segala’s dreamlike colors. His use of minimal color for backgrounds also allows the characters to stand out and take center stage in the panels.
“Sense” and “feeling” are also arguably great words to describe this masterpiece from debut writer Aditya Bidikar. Blending body horror with sensual desires, one could swear Bidikar was a veteran of the industry. This especially shows in several instances throughout, where you can clearly tell he trusted his artist & colorist, Som & Francesco Segala. To further prove himself, Bidikar seamlessly blends several messages. From celebrity idolization to body image, these messages are represented brilliantly in ways I won’t describe here. Just know that if you’re a fan of horror with something to say, you’ll love this.
Although Somnath Pal has a handful of credits in comic books, his work here is quite remarkable. The cinematic camera angles, the deliberate paneling, and the emotional heaviness of the characters were palpable. This is the work of someone who has already mastered the craft of comic book storytelling. Let alone the actual body horror depicted.
I love the mounting tension throughout the story and the buildup to an encounter that ends with some truly interesting moments of both terror and body horror that make me excited to see what happens next.
Som creates some truly stunning art throughout the issue. I love the visual style and the mixture of visual aesthetics. I also really love the body horror scene at the end and what it foreshadows of the story to come.
We also continued the promotion stuff and the interviews around this time. Since we last spoke:
AIPT did a process post about the way Som and I collaborated in making In Your Skin.
James Boyce had me on the FAQs Project for a delightful conversation that goes into some of the themes and process of In Your Skin, especially now that issue 1 is out. (Video version here.)
Som and I were on ComicsXF to talk about the book and our collaboration and influences.
Sig Slayers were kind enough to have me on for a conversation about the book.
I was also on the two-part NRI Studios podcast, talking about growing up in India reading comics, the Indian comics scene, and what it’s like to be an Indian creator working in the American industry. Much of this interview was conducted in Hindi, but most of my answers are in English, since that’s the language I’m most comfortable expressing myself in.
It was great to get a sense of the Indian comics scene at the moment, having been disconnected from it for more than a decade now. It’s nice to see that there are still people making comics and a dedicated audience of fans still reading them.
There were also a couple of souvenirs from this podcast. Co-host Indrashish sent over a print copy of a comic whose cover is a homage to the iconic Superman vs. Mohammed Ali cover, except this time including Indian comics creators, including yours truly. He also sent over some of the vintage comics I mentioned reading as a kid, which was incredibly touching.
Co-host Prasanjeet makes action figures, and he made one of me, part of a set with the rest of the creators on These Savage Shores. When I told some of my friends about these, one of them asked, “Bidi, are you, like, a big deal in comics?” I don’t know the answer to that, but I continue to love that most of my real-life friend don’t give a fuck about comics or what I do in them.
I wanted to close this with some thoughts on having a busy month. I’ve had busy months before, and a string of them a few years ago led to me burning out. It’s been a very busy month and a half for me this time, and before that, there was a whole lot of travel and work, leading me to feel a little unmoored from where I am, and where I belong. This wasn’t helped by having to move out of a house I’ve lived in for almost a decade.
Something I did for myself this time though was to do my best not to forgo a personal connection. If a friend asked me out to a movie, I said yes, if a friend wanted to meet for coffee, it was a yes. Same with family. This created a near-daily oasis of some kind of connection with another human being – which was, I feel, a big thing missing from 2020.
But it’s got me thinking again about work. I definitely don’t want to be this busy all the time, and I can’t wait for Thursday when I fly off to New Zealand to stay with some friends and (largely) not think of work for two weeks.
But I’m thinking again about work-life balance. As another friend put it in a post-midnight conversation, these are prime working years for me. Am I borrowing from my future to rest now? Or is rest essential as a matter of course? Last year, I gave up some very lucrative lettering work so that I could take care of myself and watch some movies and do some writing. Was that wise? Or should I have pushed myself and earned some extra money to secure my future in a very uncertain world? I don’t know the answer, but I’m about to wander around thinking about this for the next couple of weeks.
But the thing I do know, for sure, is what my friend Omkar said late last year when I was thinking of skipping IFFI, the film festival in Goa: If life is not for stealing unplanned moments and running off to have some fun, what is it even for?