The following contains references to suicide and sexual assault: reader discretion is advised.
Per an obituary shared by his family, cartoonist and podcaster Ed Piskor (“Hip Hop Family Tree,” “X-Men: Grand Design”) died yesterday, aged 41. The apparent cause of death, per a note by Piskor circulating online (which we will not be linking to here) was suicide. The news comes a week after Piskor was accused online of grooming a minor, and other instances of sexual misconduct, leading Jim Rugg, Piskor’s co-host on the YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe, to end his professional relationship with him.
Edward R. Piskor Jr. was born in Pennsylvania on July 28, 1982. According to the Lambiek Comiclopedia, he was raised in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Homestead, and struggled with severe health issues as a teen. He spent a year studying at the Joe Kubert School of Art, where he befriended Rugg, among others. In 2003, he contacted “American Splendor” writer Harvey Pekar, who hired him to pencil several stories in the autobiographical comic. They reteamed in 2007 on “Macedonia,” a book co-written by Heather Roberson about the destabilization of the Balkans, and on the 2009 counterculture history book “The Beats.”
After Pekar’s death in 2010, Piskor wrote and drew his own series, the hacking-themed “Wizzywig,” published by Top Shelf in 2012. That year, he also began “Hip Hop Family Tree,” a history of the music genre, published weekly on the website Boing Boing until 2015, and then in print by Fantagraphics from 2013 to 2016. The series earned him acclaim, and the 2015 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. In 2017, he launched a retelling of the X-Men’s history, “X-Men: Grand Design,” that ran at Marvel for three volumes until 2019, and which spawned ‘Grand Design’ series for the Fantastic Four (by Tom Scioli) and the Hulk (by Rugg).
He and Rugg launched Cartoonist Kayfabe in 2019. The channel and podcast featured interviews with various creators, discussions of classic comics, and more. In 2021, he launched the gory, dark web-themed horror series “Red Room” at Fantagraphics, which garnered controversy when the publisher solicited a variant cover by Rugg parodying “Maus.” Piskor stayed silent on the matter while Rugg apologized, and the cover was pulled. At the time of his death, he was publishing a fantasy comedy webcomic called “Switchblade Shorties,” which followed the misadventures of a group of latchkey kids.
Piskor is survived by his parents, three siblings, and four nieces and nephews. Our thoughts go out to them, as well as his friends and his alleged victims, for whom this is undoubtedly a difficult and emotionally complicated time.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, or need support for mental health in the United States, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK), or dial 988. If you are in Britain, contact Samaritans at 116-123 or email jo@samaritans.org. If you are in Australia, contact Lifeline for free, confidential support available 24/7 at 13-11-14. You can also visit International Association for Suicide Prevention for resources specific to your country. Remember: you are not alone.
