ICv2: RIP Ed Piskor

Comics creator Ed Piskor, the author and artist of X-Males: Grand Design, the creator of Wizzywig, Hip Hop Household Tree, and Crimson Room, and the cohost of the Comics Kayfabe podcast, died on April 1, 2024.

Piskor was born in Homestead, PA, in 1982, the eldest of 4 youngsters. In a 2013 interview with The Comics Journal, he recalled watching the documentary Comedian Ebook Confidential when he was eight or 9 years outdated and discovering underground comix for the primary time. When Robert Crumb confirmed a drawing on pocket book paper of the character that will change into Fritz the Cat, Piskor mentioned, “That was extremely necessary to me, as a result of, even at a really younger age, I instantly made this connection, like ‘okay, I can do that stuff.’” And he did. Piskor taught himself to attract by copying comics, together with Spawn and Darkish Knight Returns, and he spent one 12 months on the Kubert Faculty of Artwork.

His first huge break got here because the artist for a narrative in Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor: Our Film Yr (2004). That project grew from 4 to 25 pages on the final minute, an expertise that Piskor later likened to “cartooning boot camp.” After that, Pekar employed him because the artist for the 2007 graphic novel Macedonia, and Piskor additionally contributed to the graphic anthology The Beats, one other Pekar mission.

Piskor’s first full-length solo work was Wizzywig, a narrative about cellphone hackers, which he self-published earlier than it was picked up by High Shelf in 2012.

His subsequent mission was Hip Hop Household Tree, a sequence that started as a webcomic on BoingBoing after which was printed in four-volumes by Fantagraphics beginning in 2013. It was an instantaneous success by way of gross sales. “We’re shut to twenty,000 copies in print,” Fantagraphics Affiliate Writer Eric Reynolds instructed ICv2 in 2014. “It’s gone by way of 4 printings now, and possibly probably the most attention-grabbing factor about it, from my standpoint, is that the reprint print runs have gotten larger each time, which is one thing I’ve solely seen occur just a few instances over the previous 20 years” (see “‘Hip Hop Household Tree”). The primary quantity was nominated for an Eisner Award, and the second quantity gained the 2015 Eisner for Finest Actuality-Primarily based Work. The ultimate quantity of Hip Hop Household Tree got here out in 2016, and Fantagraphics printed an omnibus version in 2023 (see “Fantagraphics to Omnibize Ed Piskor’s ‘Hip Hop Household Tree’”).

For his subsequent mission Piskor, an X-Males fan since childhood, created X-Males: Grand Design, a historical past of the superhero workforce that pieced collectively many years of tales to create a seamless narrative (see “The Overarching Historical past of the X-Males Revealed”). X-Males: Grand Design and its sequel, X-Males: Grand Design: Second Genesis have been each nominated for Eisner Awards for Finest Restricted Collection. Marvel printed three trades in 2018-19, adopted by a whole version in 2022.

Piskor launched the splatterpunk comedian Crimson Room in 2021 (see “Fantagraphics to Publish Ed Piskor’s ‘Crimson Room’”); the comedian drew criticism in 2022 for a canopy, drawn by Jim Rugg, that parodied the duvet of Artwork Spiegelman’s Maus (see “Vernal Equinox Seize Bag”).

His most up-to-date work is Switchblade Shorties, which he serialized on-line at his Patreon and launched on Webtoon on January 1, 2024.

In late March 2024, as reported by The Beat, a girl posted screenshots of messages that Piskor had despatched her, claiming that he had been “grooming” her. A number of different accusations adopted. The Pittsburgh information website TribLive reported that an upcoming exhibit of Piskor’s artwork, scheduled to open on April 6, had been indefinitely postponed, and information crews confirmed up at his dad and mom’ home.

On April 1, Piskor posted what gave the impression to be a suicide notice on Fb. His obituary was posted later that day.

Should you or somebody is struggling or in disaster, assist is out there. Name or textual content 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. It’s also possible to go to the Suicide & Disaster Lifeline web site.