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. Cartoonist and animator Molly Wright posted on Instagram and Twitter that Piskor had propositioned her for oral sex in exchange for his agent’s phone number:
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 Wright’s post, comic art cataloger & podcaster Taffeta Darling added on X 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:
I can %100 attest to his behavior. last year Piskor invited me to his home because he wanted to draw me nude, ni exchange for me getting introduced to bigger industry folks. this was mid July and she shared he had just ended a relationship. 1/2 https://t.co/lecraBLHtM
— Taffeta Darling (@TaffetaDarlin) March 25, 2024
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 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.