Ed Piskor, Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design Artist, Reportedly Passes Away at Age 41

Ed Piskor, the artist of the Eisner Award-winning comic Hip Hop Family Tree, has reportedly passed away, per a Facebook post by his sister. Piskor, the co-host of popular podcast and YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe, had recently become embroiled in controversy after two women accused Piskor of sexual misconduct, leading to the cancellation of a planned art exhibit in Pittsburgh showcasing his Hip Hop Family Tree art and Cartoonist Kayfabe co-host Jim Rugg announcing that he was ending his “working relationship” with Piskor. On Monday, Piskor posted a lengthy note where he indicated he had plans to take his own life after refuting some of the allegations against him. 

Piskor’s obituary states that “he is survived by his loving parents, Edward R., Sr., and Diane (Blazevich) Piskor; cherished siblings, Robert (Natalie) Piskor, Justine (Joshua) Cleaves, and Brianna Piskor; and treasured nieces and nephews, Lucy, Calvin, Carson, and Brynn.”

Piskor rose to fame because of Hip Hop Family Tree from Fantagraphics, a collection of oversized comics detailing the history of hip-hop from the 1970s onwards. He gained mainstream recognition in 2018 with the release of X-Men: Grand Design, a three-volume retelling of the X-Men’s entire history, with some retcons and revisions. Piskor and Rugg’s Cartoonist Kayfabe also became popular, with nearly 90,000 subscribers on YouTube. The podcast enthusiastically discussed comics from the viewpoint of an artist and also had deep artist-to-artist interviews, the most recent being Mike Mignola. Piskor’s most recent comic, Red Room, courted controversy when Rugg created a variant comic based on Art Spigelman’s Maus as part of a series paying homage to influential indie comics. The cover attracted controversy for pairing Red Room’s violent, satirical story with a comic about the Holocaust and both Rugg and publisher Fantagraphics apologized. 

Last month, comics artist Molly Dwyer posted private messages between herself and Piskor from 2020, which Dwyer stated occurred when she was 17 years old. Dwyer shared one post in which Piskor called her a “naughty girl” and others where he offered to let her stay with him in Pittsburgh. A screen capture of some of Dwyer’s comments can be found here. A second artist, Molly Wright, came forward in a now-deleted Twitter/X post and claimed that Piskor offered his agent’s phone numbers for sexual favors. In the note posted on Monday, Piskor apologized for his behavior towards Dwyer but said that he wasn’t attempting anything untoward. He also denied Wight’s account.

Piskor’s passing was originally reported on Facebook by his sister and has since been confirmed by a local funeral home. He was 41 years old.