Ed Piskor, the cartoonist behind such acclaimed works as Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design, has been accused on social media by multiple women of grooming and other forms of misconduct.
The accusations began this past weekend, when a young female-presenting cartoonist, whose name we are not publishing here, shared screenshots of DMs with Piskor via Instagram Stories. The screenshots show dated DM conversations with Piskor that took place in 2020, when the cartoonist was just 17 and Piskor was 38. Based on the screenshots, Piskor was aware of her then-age, and calls the cartoonist a “naughty girl,” and says she’d “be a good partner in crime” before asking, “You’re not a snitch are you?” He also sends her a photograph of a room in his house, saying “you could crash here if you ever wander into my side of the state for a few days.” (Piskor and the cartoonist both live in Pennsylvania.)
The screenshots shared are from May of 2020, just a month before a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against comics creators like Cameron Stewart, Jason Latour, and Warren Ellis were made public. If you thought that might’ve made Piskor think twice about his own behavior, though, that appears not to have been the case. In text that accompanies the screenshots, which you can see below, the cartoonist indicates that Piskor has continued to DM her inappropriately “To this DAY.”
The young woman also says that “This is not a ‘cancellation’ of Ed Piskor,” that other cartoonists have been aware of Piskor’s behavior for a long time, and that she posted the screenshots in an attempt to warn other young cartoonists about his behavior and an apparent pattern of attempted grooming.
Here are screenshots shared via her Instagram Stories (which disappear after 24 hours and are no longer viewable on the site):
A few items excerpted from the text of those posts:
“This is about the inappropriate nature of Ed Piskor’s communication with me. I was way younger than him and starstruck that someone “famous” liked my art I was posting to essentially no-one by my friends.
“I am not trying to ruin anyones career or try and stay people wouldn’t reach out to artists or artists stop reaching out to their audience on social media or whatever the fuck. I’m stating that IT WAS WEIRD I WAS A 17 TURNIN 18. A SENIOR IN HIGHSCHOOL!
“HE WAS 40 THERE IS NO GOOD OR WHOLESOME REASON FOR A GROWN ASS MAN TO BE CALLING A YOUNG GIRL NAuGHTY OR TELLING HER TO COME VISIT HIM, PERVING ON HER PICTURES IN HER UNIFORM, CONSTANT COMPLIMENTING WITH VAGUE IMPLICATIONS OF HELPING HER CAREER BY STICKING WITH HIM. That is what I am trying to say by stating this shit.”
“Protect the young and vulnerable! THATS ALL!…Young cartoonists, young artists, young people of the world, anyone it doesn’t matter: if an older person attempts to get into you life assess their fucking nature, is it really what it seems?”
The screenshotted Instagram Stories began to spread on social media over the weekend, and as people caught up on them more women came forward to share their experiences with Piskor. A second accuser, whose name we have removed, posted on Instagram and Twitter that Piskor had alledgedly propositioned her for oral sex in exchange for his agent’s phone number:
View this post on Instagram
I’ll delete this eventually because I don’t want this gross slimy scumbag to taint my timeline for good so I’ll keep this short and brief: Several people are coming forward with their Ed Piskor stories. At first I shrugged it off because I’ve known he was a creep for a very long time, which some of you already know because I’ve been vocal about it – but recently I learned that one of them was a MINOR. He was perusing a MINOR at the same time as me. I know she’s getting a ton of shit for what happened so I’m posting this in support of her. Also, to the weird people saying we’re doing this for press: dude is literally a fucking loser that had to resort to making a youtube channel to pressure small comic shops into bulk buying a bunch of unsellable comics from him that take up space on shelves while he uses false bulk ordering numbers to falsify his success. I remember when this guy first met me and tried to impress me, before the channel existed, he would talk shit on @jimruggart and call him a bad artist and ALSO said he would never draw gore for attention. (for those of you that know why that’s insane, yeah that’s the personality type we’re working with here.) Anyway, it’s so weird seeing him use the same lines on me (calling me a good girl and a nerdy bum) on a literal child. I’m speechless. Anyway, I will be deleting this like I said because that guy doesn’t deserve any more attention ever again. ✌️
In response to the second accuser’s post, a third accuser [whose name we have removed] alleged that that last year Piskor offered to introduce her to “bigger industry folks” in comics in exchange for going back to his home and letting him draw her nude. The tweets were subsequently removed.
The allegations of Piskor’s behavior have drawn swift condemnation from many in the comics community. The X accounts for both Piskor and Cartoonist Kayfabe, the YouTube show Piskor co-hosts with cartoonist Jim Rugg, have both been deleted, and the YouTube channel for the series was briefly taken down, though it has since been restored, but with comments removed. Comments have also been limited on the Instagram accounts for both Piskor and Cartoonist Kayfabe.
That doesn’t mean Piskor has necessarily been silent, though. On X, a user calling themselves “Terketa” has been accused of being a burner account for Piskor due to its vigorous defense of the cartoonist’s behavior. The account was created in 2019, and had only 34 posts before this past weekend; it now has over 200. [The account has been shown to not be a sock puppet for Piskor and the screenshots have been removed.]
The misconduct allegations are not the first time that Piskor has been the center of controversy. In 2022, a variant cover that referenced Maus for his series Red Room: Trigger Warnings was criticized for mocking the Holocaust (the cover was drawn by Rugg). Piskor has also been criticized for using racial slurs including the N-word in the past.
At the same time, Piskor has an award winning body of work that has drawn much acclaim (including coverage here at The Beat.) Over the years he cultivated a “badboy” persona that isn’t going to be of much use in defending his actions (as the alleged Terketa alt account shows.)
The Beat has reached out to both Piskor and Rugg for comment. The cartoonist who initially posted the Piskor DMs has publicly declined to comment beyond what she’s posted.
[Editor’s note: in light of subsequent events, we have removed the names of Piskor’s accusers, as well as screenshots of a Twitter/X account that was erroneously identified as a Piskor sock puppet account.]
Shocked this took you guys so long to report this I sent an anonymous email about this EXACT thing to nothing years ago. He also has a show up RIGHT NOW at Gallery 707 that is supported by the NONPROFIT Pittsburgh Cultural Trust that should be immediately taken down.
I like Ed Piskor’s art and ‘Switchblade Shorties’ is genuinely amusing, but it’s always been obvious he’s a massive edgelord with a bigger ego than Tarantino.
Badboy? I get that you wrote “Bad boy”. But no one ever viewed his persona as bad boy. More like nerd trying really hard to be cool.
Damn. I’m a fan of Ed, Jim, and their Cartoonist Kayfabe channel. This is extremely disappointing, to say the least. This is not good at all. He might have not broken the law, but Ed’s behavior is highly problematic, inappropriate, and disgusting. Damn. If CK and Ed go down because of this, all the positive things he and Jim brought to the Comic Book community will be tainted and will have been for nothing. I’m not sure if I can continue to be a fan of someone who chooses to behave in this shady manner. Ed, you done F’d up, man. Good luck to you. Jim — I truly hope you survive this S-storm. Tom (Scioli), I hope you’re not affected by this either. Damn!
Girl did not want to cancel him but she handed the perfect weapon to a bunch of people that wanted him dead for a long time lol.
This is terrible. No winners here. CK has been such a powerful influence (IMO) on the community. It’s a shame. Ed would often talk about the [comic book] history they were making recording books and interviews, and he was right. Those vids are out there forever and there is some GREAT stuff in those vids. But that is all out the window now, unfortunately. My wish is for time to be gentle on those vids. Guilty or not, Ed was always on his A-game in the vids, as was Jim. None of that excuses any poor choices Ed made. I feel terrible for everyone. I feel terrible for any woman that had to deal with this. I feel terrible for Ed’s fans (me included), I feel terrible for his family, I even feel terrible for Ed. He messed up. Can’t do that, man. I also feel terrible if there is any collateral damage on his friends/peers Jim and Tom.
Cartoonist Kayfabe is great for comics, but terrible for comics culture. They only talk about what they like or hate personally, which amounts to dude bro stuff. No women allowed, no diversity. That’s perfectly fine; you do you…but for a community that struggles to grow, and has been fighting for a diversified culture, the channel has some troubling blind spots that tend to emphasize Ed Piskor’s creepy behavior.
Even with screenshots, the presumption of innocence still applies. Accusations should never be taken at face value but they should be looked into. Of course, it could be as these women say, but law enforcement should look into these. Allegations these serious should be brought to the police, and I would be a bit suspicious of the accusers if they do not ho to the police. I think this can’t be tried in the court of public opinion, since everybody and anybody can have an opinion and muck up the details about what happened and when. That’s why we should be careful not to dogpile on the accused until authorities dig into it, which they have not done. To the extent Piskor broke the law is the extent to which he should be punished.
Comics culture is a mess, and maybe it has a lot to do with loneliness. There are no more bullpens, where men and women worked together. Creators work from home, communicate via email/text. For years creators would drop off assignments at the office, schmooze around the editorial office, get lunch with the creative team. That was when the world was much smaller. Now everyone is syphoned away in their own corner of the world. Maybe 40 year old Ed Piskor is lonely and believes there is no chance of impressing a woman of his own age with his Rob Liefeld obsessions.
Loneliness is a terrible thing. Working in comics is far tougher these last 20 years than in the past, lower pay, shrinking market. When comics were considered mainstream people were meeting people of like interests. Ed Piskor only pushed himself deeper into obscurity in a shrinking specialty market by gatekeeping his industry tastes, pushing comic tropes of the under matured, and not inviting greater awareness towards his peers. He’s made statements of his view that his peers are his competition. He doesn’t use his privilege to share attention with his peers, instead box’s them out, and use said privilege to chase naive young people. Because loneliness is a terrible thing.
They have to come forward and talk about this. No one will come on their show to be interviewed until this is dealt with. The Youtube channel is still up but nothing new on it in two days.
@TC What are you talking about? “No women allowed”? They interviewed female creators and discussed various titles. No diversity? Their best friends are minorities and frequently guest starred. What gatekeeping? Check out how many peers they showcased. What privilege? It’s not a government program. This is about a middle-aged man from the industry inappropriately DM-ing a young girl, not about your fantasies about the comics community.
That burner account has to be him. The only comics related accounts it follows are Jim Rugg, the shows’s cohost, Peach Momoko, a Japanese artist who did a bunch of Red Room covers and has been interviewed/heavily promoted on the channel and IDW, publisher of the Artists Edition series which the hosts constantly gush over. No posts on the acct. for months, then shows up out of nowhere to tweet nonstop in Piskor’s defense. You don’t have to be the cybercrime taskforce from a Red Room comic to piece these clues together….
@Roger Is this your first day on the internet? He’s done nothing illegal, he’s getting cancelled for being a dirty old man.
Piskor did nothing illegal. The police do not need to be involved. The age of consent is 16in Pennsylvania.
What he did do is violate COMMUNITY STANDARDS. And the community is judging him.
The lesson here seems to be if you are a comics professional, NEVER respond to, talk to, DM, mentor, or worst of all, form any kind of remote friendship with a young, female artist or writer if they’re even slightly under 18—because tiny out-of-context snippets of a years-long texts can be selectively posted alongside unverified accusations and you’re instantly toast (and The Beat will also throw in entirely unrelated grievances like Jim Rugg’s Maus parody cover). It’s unfortunate that this is the community standard now, since young, aspiring, female creatives could benefit from such interactions, but the price is too steep should the “community” turns its wrathful eye towards you and start “judging”.
No, the lesson is not do not groom a young woman by inviting her to come stay in your house.
@Heidi, When I was 16-17, there were concerts and comics conventions I was only able to attend because a friend let me crash at their apartment. But sure, times have changed, and an offer to “crash” has become absolute damming evidence of “grooming”.
the lesson is “do not groom a young woman.”
Fixed it for you. Heidi. ;)
@Jim Are you dense? Do you text 17 year olds and call them “naughty”? Is that what a professional relationship looks like to you? Heaven forbid you actually have even a toe in the comics industry with that talk. Sorry your favorite YouTube channel got taken down :’(
And lest we forget the Kayfabe channel helped spotlight Bryan Moss, Ann Nocenti, Peach Momoko, Japan book hunter, David Choe, and many more diverse cartoonists and their work – but diversity only counts when a select few champion it (usually with empty words and no actions of course). Disgusting bullies like Alex De Campi only pop up when its time to tear someone down.
Ill be joining the Kayfabe Patreon and hope they continue posting. Never apologize and keep moving on because the pigs never accept an apology. Its never enough. Hope for a comeback soon like Warren Ellis.
@Jeff Byrd getting any light in that basement of yours?
Sympathies for the women involved. Guy’s a creep. Enough said.
Jim, there is a huge difference between crashing with a pal on an adventure and being asked by someone old enough to to be your father to come visit you alone to….hang out and talk about Todd McFarlane. And anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that.
Teenagers, notably, have less common sense than older people; that’s why we have legal and community protection for them.
The comments here are a bingo card of defenses and objections so I will leave up the ones that seem more genuine. But engage in any edgelord name calling and you get removed.
Activists will object to the following analogy, but for any men here who have daughters, how would you feel if you found out your teen-aged daughter was texting these sorts of things with a man of….hell, ANY age. Try a little empathy.
Four Color Sinners called him out three months ago. Also for people’s radar: Andrew Pepoy, a blatant and disgusting groomer and predator. I’ll say it to his face but it’s apparently an open secret on the convention circuit.
Also- a badboy persona? Really? A suburban gamer poseur is what Piskor is, co-opting other cultures- nothing “badboy” about him. He looks pale and sickly and wouldn’t last a day on the streets. Good on you for covering this story though. More creeps- and they are plentiful in this industry- need to be exposed and stopped.
@Evan, I’ve never read a single Ed Piskor comic, and I’d never even heard of his YouTube channel before today (I barely watch YouTube). I don’t give a damn about Ed Piskor. And no, I wouldn’t personally text a 17-year-old and call them “naughty”, or anything else for that matter. All I’m saying is that as it stands now, this just doesn’t seem near as clear-cut as the accusations against Scott Allie, or Gerard Jones, or Hope Nicholson. With only a handful of out of context texts (barely more than a few words), how can anyone be certain—absolutely certain—what the context behind these texts was? I have no idea and neither do you because it’s impossible to tell what anything means when single sentences are pulled without anything before or after. I just think we should stop assuming guilt until we’re absolutely certain we know exactly what happened here. And then… if Piskor is guilty, set him on fire for all I care.
@ Jim: Believe women.
@Jim…How many young men has Piskor invited to “crash” at his place? Or how many young women who wouldn’t be considered conventionally attractive? How many of them has he offered to mentor? LMAO!
@Com Monsense, I don’t know. Do you? I’m not any kind of Piskor apologist. I don’t give a damn about the guy. All I am is a person who would like to actually know the answers to the questions you asked BEFORE I join the mob to destroy his life. That’s all. There’s plenty of time to declare the guy guilty. Everything doesn’t have to happen on day one. I mean, there’s like a million comics and movies about how snap mob decisions usually turn out to be wrong in some way. Hasn’t anyone else ever seen one of those?
Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is – artist flirts with pretty girl, news at 11. Wholesome? Maybe not, but the history of art shows us that saints rarely make for great artists or interesting people. I dig Piskor and I’ll gladly keep supporting both his work and Cartoonist Kayfabe.
@The Wizard The more likely “big deal” is Weaselly Egomaniac Offers Contact With His Agent To Female Artists In Exchange for Sexual Favors. And the bigger deal is just how much of an opportunistic Dbag he is on a daily basis on social media.
@fourcolorsinners But don’t mindlessly believe anyone without facts, especially not cancerous Word Press slime who post nothing but hate-threads anonymously. Cowardice is a sure sign of untrustworthiness.
@Atlas Yum – I’m not going to stop enjoying the work and insights of an original, interesting creator because of a bunch of claims so intangible and flimsy the people ‘speaking out’ have already scrubbed their own social media. There’s a lot of haters who love to seize an opportunity like this to pile on out of envy, spite, general dislike, tribalism, what have you. As Heidi herself has already correctly pointed out: no crimes were committed here. Between Trump, Putin and Hamas the world has more than enough real problems that deserve my outrage and anger than a cartoonist being a little pervy.
I’m a Pittsburgh cartoonist as well. I know Ed.
I’ve also been hearing stories of his grooming for years, both firsthand and secondhand. Two of those women are close friends of mine.
It’s no surprise so few women have come forward, considering his fame and influence, or that it took this many years for someone to make it public.
I personally find him to be a bully and a creep who has hurt a lot of people.
Some bad actors on the right (won’t mention their name) are having a field day with this. Getting outrage clicks and new members.
So who did this collective outrage help? Them? The women – not really – the industry could not care less about them.
The Kayfabe channel did way more good than bad and now it’s gone (hopefully not for good).
I don’t need to know the personal details of all my entertainment icons. I want to hear about comics. I love Guns N Roses but I definitely don’t want Axl rose dating my sister.
@The Wizard – If you are so concerned about “Trump, Putin and Hamas,” may I suggest you read a website that covers world events and not one about comics?
@Jerry Whitley- on the contrary, the Kayfabe channel was fraught with errors and incorrect history- not that Piskor and Rugg claimed otherwise, they were usually forthcoming with their lack of knowledge in certain areas but they frequently put forth false information on a regular basis (albeit unwittingly, not maliciously) due to their lack of any in-depth knowledge beyond industry hearsay and Wizard/Bleeding Cool.
@The Wizard I can at least appreciate you citing two real criminals (Trump/Putin) and Hamas (instead of Israel as is so fashionable now) as objects of your ire. That said, both Mollys’ (Lil Eddie loves his Molly, it seems) have social media up. Actually the party in all this who “scrubbed” their SM was…you guessed it, King Kayfake. I completely agree that nothing stated was remotely illegal. In fact, I’m more repulsed by Ed’s sleazy opportunism and disingenuousness on YouTube. But the “naughty girl” comment is a red herring when compared to Ed “proposing oral sex in exchange for his agent’s phone number” to a talented Pittsburgh animator. Which based on the torrent of accusations was hardly an anomaly. You have to wonder if his agent knows they are being leveraged in the sleaziest way imaginable? Or maybe, like Ed, they are all about the money too and are just hoping it all blows over (no pun intended).
From the Cartoonist Kayfabe Subreddit: “Guy used to hang out on CMU [Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh] campus and latch onto female students into cartooning. They’d figure him out or graduate and he’d move onto a younger one. My experiences with him were 15 years ago back when he [was] inking Hip Hop Family Tree. He had a gross and uncharitable attitude towards other artists unless he had something to gain from them: clout, attention, gigs, and whatever you think he sought from young girls. Even if you don’t meet the criteria for someone he’d target, this isn’t the kind of person who cultivates community for the right reasons. I tend to skip his videos.” Sounds rather credible.
He’s an arrogant artist who talks a ton of shit about better pros. I despise his performative Beastie Boys bullshit. Creeps aren’t anything new. The prestige his hideous work gained is the shock to me.
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