You know how I said I had half the page done last time? Yeah I rewrote the whole part and couldn’t use the art I had. Also, I kept writing this interaction over and over because I just wasn’t flowing how I wanted. Anyway, it’s done now and here it is.

Now on to a more somber subject that I will likely not treat in a way that will please everyone. On April first Ed Piskor killed himself. For those of you who’ve only heard of this act via youtube people outside of the weirdly censorious part of the internet call it suicide. You will know it as “self deletion” or “unaliving” because we now live in a world that is seemingly hellbent on not letting people confront reality… But I digress. Right at the top I’m gonna tell you I was, and am, not a fan of Piskor’s work. I don’t have a problem with it, it just wasn’t my bag, baby. He was known for something called Hip Hop Family Tree, which I think he won an Eisner for. I don’t know if that was in the years after the Eisner became a hollow popularity contest, but I do know that the art was skillful and seemingly worthy of praise on that level alone. He also did some work for Marvel and I’m sure other things. What I knew him from, in passing, is a podcast called Cartoonist Kayfabe which he cohosted with fellow creator Jim Rugg. I tell you all this because whenever I’ve brought up the subject the first question has been “Who?” without fail. In short, Ed Piskor was a hip hop lovin’ white boy who drew comics.
Around the end of March, I think, a lady alleged that he had offered industry connections, or what have you, to her, for “sexual favors”, while she was still a minor. (In her home country she was of age, but not by American standards, is what I think is correct, but I can’t find a decent source at the time of this writing.) From what I’ve seen of the actual interactions he comes across as an awkward nerd who doesn’t know how to act with women in general and not an actual sexpest. That’s just my read on what I’ve seen though. Feel free to think whatever you like if you choose to delve. The second set of allegations don’t appear to have any actual proof that I could find. As far as I can tell a woman just said things without proof and he denied them. Which leaves you just basically having to pick as side. Not that you, or I, should really be involved in any way to begin with, at least from a legal standpoint.
At this point everyone who had been waiting for the chance to take him down made their moves. In short order his life was destroyed by his peers without being given a chance to defend himself in any meaningful way. If you think that is the correct way for things to play out I respect your right to feel that way. I think it’s dangerous. As someone who makes enemies easily I would not like to be tried in the court of public opinion. I’m not real keen on the actual court either, but at least it feels like there’s some level of structure to it. Although much less now than when I was young I have to say…
From the time I heard about the allegations to the time he was dead was two days. Unlike most of these situations his suicide note got published before they found him and it’s a tough read. He clearly wasn’t someone who thought all that deeply about things outside of his passions. The tools needed to ride out the storm weren’t in his toolkit. I won’t link the note, but it’s easy to find.
When his friend Jim threw him under the bus was when I thought things were truly over for him. If your best friend won’t back you that’s pretty damning, but looking over the evidence presented I think Jim Rugg might just be a bad friend and a coward. Like, there are times when it’s completely justified to ditch a friend, I’m just not sure this was one of those times. It kinda seemed like Rugg saw the wolves heading for Ed and chose to save his skin instead of defending Ed’s character. I dunno. I hope I never find myself in that position though.
The ironic thing about all of this is that Piskor regularly got behind similar movements to try someone in the court of public opinion. I think that’s part of why he chose death. He knew what they were going to do to him because he’d done the same thing to others. Maybe it was karma, or maybe things just happen. Either way if the lesson is so harsh you don’t survive to learn it’s not a very good lesson. At the end of all of this I don’t know the truth of any of it. Maybe Ed Piskor was just another talented piece of shit who deserved to die like a dog in the street. I don’t know. I’m just looking over a bad situation from afar and pondering if justice was served. It doesn’t feel like it was.

Is justice important to people anymore?

Posts authored by Jackie

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