The Death of Ed Piskor
At the age of 41, Ed Piskor passes away, maintaining his innocence in his suicide note.
This one is a rough one I won’t be having a lot of concern with the English and most of the newsletter is going to be quotes from those most affected by the events of the last week.
I had a bad feeling we I wrote about the Ed Piskor affair, but I wasn’t expecting that it would end up with his suicide, something that happened on the 1st of April. He left a suicide note on Facebook, some people tried to reach him, but it was already too late.
Piskor’s Side
“I’m helpless against a mob of this magnitude. Please share my side of things.” Was the message he left with a link to a long letter where he addressed the allegations that had been made against him.
I’m so sorry for being so stupid. I definitely should never have talked with Molly D. The language and optics look real dumb at best but I promise my innocence. Especially out of context, it looks terrible. It was the height of Covid with no end in sight and I was alone through most of it. I was just happy to have the internet to talk to people with common interests. The way that I noticed her was when she would like a bunch of my pictures at once. I wasn’t trolling Instagram randomly, but I definitely shouldn’t have chatted with her when I found out how young she was. Seeing someone younger representing R Crumb and GG Allin gave me hope for the next generations and made me curious. Curiosity killed the cartoonist. There was no way I’d have a 17-year-old stay at my place. Maybe not 18 even. I was forward projecting to some unknown future where Covid lockdowns were finished and we could see people again. And it wasn’t even with sex in mind but simply saying that there’s a bed here to crash like the kindness that was given to me a bunch of times when I was starting out. “Zine fair in town? Come crash”. Ask Liana Finck or anyone else who’s come to visit. It doesn’t mean sex. When I asked if she could keep a secret it was because I was sharing some red room pages before announcing the book and was just trying to sound cool. Tone is missing.
He went on to refute the accusations of Molly Wright, which “pushed this over the edge into ‘multiple women’ territory.”
I absolutely never asked for a blowjob in trade for anything ever. She successfully made me look stupid and everybody accepted her word as fact. […] I never had anyone lined up for an open relationship with her. I never was interested in a relationship with her. We had sex twice and she initiated both times.
Regarding the third accusation, Piskor admitted that he enjoyed drawing "big titty Taff" naked and expressed no apologies for his preferences. He like for drawing “tits and tattoos” when he wasn't working on comics. He then proceeded to recount how his life unraveled within the span of a week.
Now it’s all gone. Art show evaporated. Was about to sign a $75k deal for Switchblade Shorties with Abrams, Cartoonist Kayfabe ends with Jimmy’s “shocking revelations” statement (those words hurt). I have no friends in this life any longer. I’m a disappointment to everybody who liked me. I’m a pariah. News organizations at my door and hassling my elderly parents. It’s too much. Putting our addresses on TV and the internet. How could I ever go back to my small town where everyone knows me?
He went on to explain that comics were more than just a profession to him. They were everything, and while that “might sound sad and pathetic to some”, this culture and medium gave him “the greatest joy in life”. And the went on to point to some of the people who piled on him.
There were so many out there waiting in the wings for something like this to emerge. Daryl Ayo Braithwait called it a kill shot. You all got your wish. You were waiting for something to blow out of proportion and it got served to you on a silver platter. Ramon Villalobos, Cam Del Rosario, JB Roe, Molly Wright, congratulations. You got your pound of flesh. Evan Dorkin, I hope skeletons from your closet get revealed someday. Alex DeCampi, may you continue to have zero success no matter how hard you continuously leverage other people’s business from your bully pulpit.
The fact that some people on the left were named in Piskor's note led a few people on the right to use it as a weapon against them, which wouldn't have been problematic if they hadn't been throwing stones and contributing to the lynching of Ed Piskor. Some individuals spent a week posting daily videos dragging Piskor through the mud, only to later scrub their YouTube channels of videos and offensive thumbnails about him, pretending that they had always been on Piskor's side and blaming others for the situation.
Piskor finished is note with a Gipys curse:
I was murdered by Internet bullies. Massive amounts of them. Some of you out there absolutely contributed to my death as you were entertaining yourself with gossip. I wasn’t AI. I was a real human being. You chipped little bits of my self esteem away all week until I was vaporized. Maybe I’ll be able to haunt you dorks as a ghost. I come from Gypsy heritage and I’m definitely cursing a lot of you.
The Family Grief
People where shock with is death and there several author that expressed their grief and condolences, but I’l just quote part of a message left on Facebook by his brother, Potter Piskor.
“I was murdered by Internet Bullies”
Words are powerful. Words are humorous. Words have meaning. Words are hurtful. Words are damning.
“I was murdered by Internet Bullies.” That is powerful. The fact is that my brother was murdered by Internet Bullies. People found the humor to speak about a series of untruths, fictitious excerpts that glorified a certain narrative. The words you all wrote, that made you all so very proud, had a lot of meaning to my brother. In his eyes, he let his family down. When it fact; the Internet Bullies let HIM down. These words hurt. They hurt so many people. The Piskor family is large. It has a reach that goes beyond the world of Comics. How do you tell my 10-year-old daughter that her favorite person won’t get to finish their sketchbook that they have been working on since she could hold a crayon? You robbed my niece of the ability to sit on the floor and draw with my brother. You robbed my nephews the ability to play video games with him. You robbed my parents of their firstborn son. You robbed my family of their cousin, their brother, their uncle. You robbed the comic industry of a historian. You robbed the world of a New York Fucking Times Best Selling Author. You robbed the world of my big brother. I’ll be DAMNED if I don’t stand up and speak up about this.
Final Thoughs
The most egregious thing that Piskor was accused of, and he admitted to, was sending direct messages on Instagram to a, then, 17-year-old, which could be misconstrued as having a sexual innuendo. She never accused him of anything more serious and made a point of clarifying that, even if people "forget" to quote those sentences.
I am 21 now. I am fine! I WAS NEVER HARMED! He never sent me any dick pics. Never made me take nudes.
That wasn’t enough for the mob. Now that the Ed Piskor story is over, there are some videos on Cartoonist Kayfabe that Jim Rugg started releasing today, and there is some unpublished work to be published, but his life is over.
For today it’s all, cherish or loved one, and if feel at the end of the rope search for help, things can and will get better and there’s always someone who can help.
Until the the time,
Miguel Ardan