I just wanted to take a moment while I'm still in shock to share my thoughts on this tragic situation.
One April, 1 2024 I saw a post from Peter Bagge saying the Ed Piskor died.
For a second, I thought it was some sick April Fools joke, but a quick search confirmed it and worse yet, he died by suicide. Piskor came onto my radar right from day one of his career...I saw the solicitation of his first book, Wizzywig which caught my eye because the cover was designed like the original Game Boy. I liked the book and added it to the collection because I felt this guy had talent and a future in the industry.
Around the time I noticed his Youtube show Cartoonist Kayfabe I picked up another of his books, Hip Hop Family Tree. What he tried to do with this book was tell the definitive history of Hip-Hop/Rap, told in comics form. The connection between comic books and hip-hop are well known so it seemed like a perfect fit.
Marvel must have taken notice because he did the same thing for the X-Men comics. X-Men Grand Design was pretty impressive, taking all of the X-Men's various storylines through the years and filtering them into a cohesive bible.
Based on these works and his Youtube channel I could feel Ed Piskor's passion for the medium. The industry needs that. I honestly expected a lot of this guy...I could totally see him becoming a Bendi or Hickman based on his knowledge and passion alone.
Unfortunately, the universe had different plans and Ed Piskor took his own life. He was 41 years old. In March 2024 he got caught up in some metoo-style bullshit and the internet piled on, he lost a book deal and lost his partnership with his Youtube show and lost an art show deal and couldn't handle it and killed himself.
It's such a tragic loss and my heart goes out to his family and friends. But it's also tragic to the comics industry. I don't know if he was guilty or innocent and I don't care...he didn't deserve this. We need to be better than this.
And please...please remember if you're ever in that dark place that its just a tunnel and if you keep moving forward eventually you will get through it. Look at James Gunn...he was in the exact same place. He lost his deal with Marvel, was off Guardians of the Galaxy and now look at him. He's running DC's entire movie and television division. Don't give up!
I'm including his suicide letter below...I hope we can all learn something from this.
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