The Frog and the Scorpion
I don't come to bury Piskor but I definitely will never praise him.
That Ed Piskor Thing
Unless you are off the comics grid, you are probably aware about the recent controversy regarding Ed Piskor and the grooming of women, one of them a minor when he was 38 years old. Lots has been said and other women he has targeted have come forward and his career looks pretty much dead. Like Warren Ellis dead but worse because people seemed to like Ellis but a horde of people don’t like Piskor (more on that later). His upcoming art exhibit in Pittsburgh featuring his HHFT work was cancelled like a bad sitcom. I’m not going to rehash more because it’s being covered by people with more time, ability and resources than I.
Why Do Guys Do This Self-Destructive Shit?
The story of the Scorpion and the Frog explains it best:
Watching all of this unfold was interesting (at least to me) because of the following:
I posted the following pic of Molly Dwyer’s story where she outed Piskor’s attempt at grooming her and I added a comment:
I posted this on the Sunday morning after the news broke because I expected Molly to get a ton of hate messages and wanted to be a male to confirm this was true. I didn’t do it for clicks or to get followers, I just thought it was the right thing to do. I hope that the people who do follow my IG feed know that I’m fair but honest and sometimes blunt. But not a glory-hound. I just want to talk about comics.
I suddenly started getting likes and follows from accounts I was not familiar with. Many of them were those zero-posts private accounts which always brings out the red alert signal to my ears. My comics page is public but I do monitor it and I gained 12 followers but I can guarantee I blocked twice as many of these rando IG folks. I don’t need plants and trolls monitoring what I do. If I see a new follower and I don’t know them and no one I know follows them, they are probably blocked. My time in the Facebook Group Formerly Known As The Cartoon Kayfabe Ringside Seats taught me that the blocking feature is our friend and life is too short for unncessary bullshit.
I found out later on that a friend posted a link to my IG post on Reddit so that explained the weird rando followers. That link got a ton of views.
The next day Multiversity Comics posted a story about Piskor and my oldest sent me the pic below. Apparently, he was on a comics online group and someone posted it and he told them “Hey, that’s my dad!” and then sent me the pic. That was definitely unexpected.
I have had few troll comments but no real backlash. Then again, I don’t hang out with comicsbros that are still stroking to their Youngblood and Shadowhawk #1s. However, I did not expect my post to get out of control and it’s a reminder of how fast anything you post on social media can quickly go viral. Fortunately, it wasn’t taken negatively. I think that two additional women having come forward to also talk about their experiences with Piskor trying to groom them sort of kills the “wHEre is tHe prOOf???” rebuttal. At least for most people.
I don’t hate Ed Piskor. I’m totally disgusted with him and guys like him that prey on young women because they apparently have no other way to meet and have sex with women other than finding and grooming them. I think he’s a good (not great) artist and a mediocre at best writer but I don’t hate him like some other people do. I liked X-Men Grand Design and WIZIWIG, I thought Red Room was trash. But so do a lot of people.
What I find interesting is that some people REALLY hate the guy and the channel. I’m talking despise and detest Piskor. I think the Gutter Boys are partying like it’s 1999. I just think it’s a shame that this shit happens to women of all ages and especially minors and I feel terrible for the women it happens to. I hope that taking Piskor to his career execution doesn’t obscure the fact that there are women dealing with some sort of emotional damage.
Do I think the treatment towards him is too harsh?
No. Fuck him and guys like him.
All of this reminds me of someting I will tell men who have daughters as advice. If you have a daughter, pay attention:
When you have a teenage son, you have to mostly worry about teenage girls and maybe girls in their 20s. But when you have a teenage daughter, you have to worry about teenage boys. And guys in their 20s. And their 30s. And their 40s. And their 50s. And their 60s. Because men don’t see young women as someone that could be their daughters or grandaughters. They seem them as mates.
Outro:
Leaving the outro to comedy great Katt Williams:
