EGN NEWS DESK
The comics artist Ed Piskor, who was finest identified for his multivolume “Hip Hop Family Tree,” died final week after posting a prolonged be aware to social media about an accusation of sexual misconduct that led a gallery in Pittsburgh to indefinitely postpone an exhibition of his work.
The dying of Piskor, who lived in Munhall, Pa., was confirmed by a funeral house, however no trigger was given. Many individuals learn his be aware on social media — through which he repeatedly spoke of his dying — as a suicide be aware.
Two of Piskor’s kinfolk declined to remark. The chief of the Munhall Police Department mentioned Piskor died exterior of Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a nonprofit arts group, introduced final month that it will not open the five-month exhibition as deliberate after a lady accused Piskor of making an attempt to “groom” her in 2020, when she was in highschool, and posted screenshots from their on-line conversations.
Piskor, 41, apologized for the messages in his be aware and mentioned he by no means ought to have communicated with {the teenager}. He additionally addressed separate allegations from one other artist, saying that they’d a consensual sexual relationship.
His agent, Bob Mecoy, mentioned the artist had outlined himself by his work and was devastated by what the longer term had held.
Piskor had the sensation “that it doesn’t matter what the circumstances have been, what the reality of the scenario was, his profession was over, and what he needed to provide could be objectionable it doesn’t matter what he did,” Mecoy mentioned.
In Piskor’s be aware, he expressed dismay that his exhibition had been postponed, and he criticized what he referred to as on-line lynch mobs, saying they’d contributed to his dying.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust mentioned in an announcement final month that it had taken the allegation in opposition to Piskor “very critically” and that the exhibition, which was presupposed to characteristic unique illustrations from “Hip Hop Family Tree,” wouldn’t open as deliberate.
In an announcement after his dying, the belief mentioned: “We are deeply saddened by this tragic information. Our ideas are with Ed’s household and buddies at this tough time.”
“Hip Hop Family Tree” chronicles the early historical past of hip-hop, with its feuds and friendships. The comedian sequence — for which Piskor did the analysis, writing, illustrations, lettering and coloring — started in 2012 as an ongoing one-page characteristic on the web site Boing Boing and was compiled by Fantagraphics. Its second quantity was named the most effective reality-based work on the 2015 Eisners, the comedian e-book trade’s equal of the Oscars.
The rapper Chuck D, of Public Enemy, mentioned in an announcement that he saluted Piskor’s work.
“His element in story and art work for myself and all of hip-hop served as an informative cornerstone of visible reality in areas different media couldn’t obtain,” he mentioned.
For Marvel, Piskor created “X-Men: Grand Design,” a chronological retelling of X-Men historical past that attempted to make sense of the twists and turns within the mutants’ lives. The assortment was introduced on telephone book, giving it the look of an older comedian.
The aim, Piskor wrote in 2018, was to take the 1000’s of pages of early X-Men volumes and to create a “satisfying 240-page story which incorporates all a very powerful components, however not one of the fats, redundancy or deus ex machina from the sequence.”
Piskor additionally had a well-liked comedian e-book podcast, “Cartoonist Kayfabe,” with the artist Jim Rugg. He can be remembered for his boundless enthusiasm and as a proselytizer for comics, mentioned Gary Groth, the co-founder of Fantagraphics and the editor in chief of The Comics Journal.
“A number of artists are obsessed and numerous artists are targeted and pushed, however Ed had a type of indiscriminate, omnivorous ardour,” Groth mentioned. “He cherished the whole lot about comics.”
If you might be having ideas of suicide, name or textual content 988 to succeed in the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/assets for an inventory of further assets.
