Image Comics is getting ready to release a new graphic novel that takes celebrity obsession, identity, and body horror into some seriously dark territory.
In Your Skin, from writer Aditya Bidikar and artist SOM, follows Priyanka, a lifelong Bollywood superfan who has spent years watching the films of her favorite actress, Ayesha Sen. She knows Ayesha’s movies, dances, and performances almost by heart. But when Priyanka finally gets the chance to meet her idol, the encounter doesn’t go the way she imagined.
Things get even more complicated when Ayesha announces that she plans to retire from movies.
For Priyanka, that isn’t simply disappointing news. Her admiration begins turning into something much more disturbing. If Ayesha isn’t interested in living the perfect life Priyanka has imagined for her, maybe Priyanka should take that life for herself.
And that’s where In Your Skin really starts to get creepy.
Image Comics describes the book as a standalone, Cronenbergian body horror story, and the publisher is positioning it as something that should appeal to fans of The Substance, Black Swan, and Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Those comparisons give you a pretty good idea of the territory this story is heading into: obsession, identity, beauty, celebrity culture, and the increasingly blurry line between wanting to be someone and wanting to become them.
Bidikar, whose previous work includes The Department of Truth and Blue In Green, is joined by artist SOM, known for Crocodile Black. Together, they are taking what sounds like a familiar celebrity-fan story and pushing it into much stranger territory.
The complete four-issue miniseries will be collected in a 128-page trade paperback. In Your Skin will arrive at local comic shops on October 28, 2026, followed by a wider bookstore release on November 24. A digital edition will also be available through several major platforms.
If you like horror that gets under your skin rather than relying on monsters jumping out of the shadows, In Your Skin looks like an interesting one to keep an eye on this fall. The combination of Bollywood celebrity culture, obsession, and body horror could make for a pretty unsettling read.
Beam Me Up Scotty
Old punk rocker from Miami who still smells faintly like comic shops and poor financial decisions.
