Comic artist Ed Piskor commits suicide after being harassed online for two accusations of sexual harassment that he denied in a posthumous note

The American comics artist Ed Piskor has died at the age of 41, as reported by his family on the afternoon of Monday, April 1. Although they have not directly revealed the reasons, Piskor himself left a suicide note on his networks; However, all experts agree that suicide is a multi-causal phenomenon so it cannot be attributed to a single event. Just 10 days ago, two women, a graphic artist named Molly Dwyer, now 21, and an entertainer, Molly Wright, accused him of both trying to “seduce” her, the first, and of asking her for oral sex to help her at work, the second. . The artist vehemently denied the accusations in a long five-page message that he published a few hours before he died.

Piskor was known for being the artist of the comic book saga Hip Hop Family Tree, which began in 2013 and reviewed the history of this musical genre in the United States since the 1970s; It was translated into half a dozen languages ​​and won the prestigious Eisner award, the most important in the world of cartoons, in 2015. The latest installment, a compilation of the saga of more than 500 pages called Buswas published in October 2023. However, the prolific professional life of Piskor, born in Pennsylvania, has been overshadowed in recent weeks by his personal issues and accusations of harassment.

Last weekend of March 24, Molly Dwyer, a lauded 21-year-old cartoonist from Philadelphia, called Piskor “disgusting,” claiming that he tried to “seduce” her in 2020, when she was just 17 years old. Dwyer showed messages from her, such as one in which she read: “Are you 17 or 18 years old? “I'm going to go crazy if you say 17 because that age turns me on a lot.” Dwyer published the messages – which were collected those days by specialized comic media – in the Stories of her profile on instagram, now closed, which lasted 24 hours. Her screenshots were from messages from May 2020, and along with them, the artist stated that she was not looking for “a cancellation of Ed Piskor”, because “many colleagues in the guild have been aware” of the cartoonist's behavior for a long time, and that She only intended to alert other young women of what seemed like a pattern, in her words. Dwyer claimed that there was “no reason” why a 40-year-old man would ask a 17-year-old girl “to come visit him, to comment on his photos in uniform, or to give him constant compliments with certain implications about helping her in her life.” career if I continued with him”, and that for this reason he felt “the need” to tell it. “Let's protect the young and vulnerable, that's all, that's my intention,” she said on her social networks.

A few days later another artist, this time from Pennsylvania, Molly Wright, claimed on her now-protected X account (formerly Twitter) that Piskor had asked her to perform oral sex on him in exchange for providing him with his agent's phone number.

After these statements, the exhibition that was being prepared in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Piskor's work, was paralyzed. “The Pittsburgh Cultural Fund learned yesterday of allegations of misconduct against artist Ed Piskor, whose work was scheduled to be exhibited at 707 Penn Gallery beginning April 6, 2024,” a spokesperson for the fund explained to a local newspaper last March 25. “The fund takes the allegations very seriously and has decided to postpone the exhibition indefinitely.”

For four years Ed Piskor had a program on YouTube—with more than 90,000 subscribers—called Cartoonist Kayfabe, which he co-presented with fellow cartoonist Jim Rugg and in which they analyzed the world of comics and interviewed different figures in it. On the 30th, Rugg wrote in his profile instagram, in a message that is no longer available, that he had decided to end said collaboration. “In light of last week's shocking revelations, I find it necessary to reevaluate my professional associations to align them with my values ​​of respect and integrity. That is why I have decided to end my professional relationship with Ed Piskor.”

It was Justine Piskor, the cartoonist's sister, who announced his death through another message on Facebook on the afternoon of April 1, in a brief text with several photographs together: “With a broken heart I share that my brother Ed has died today. Please keep our family in your prayers, because this is the hardest thing we have ever been through.”

On Monday, April 1 at eight in the morning (Pennsylvania time), shortly before his death was announced, Ed Piskor wrote a message on his Facebook profile, which he used frequently. “I feel defenseless in front of a mob of this magnitude. Please share my side of things. Sayonara”, he said goodbye. The phrase accompanied a much longer text, a five-page document in a Google Drive file, which begins with “I'm very sorry for having been so stupid.”

“The language and perspective make me sound like a complete idiot, but I promise I'm innocent,” he says, explaining that he should never have spoken to Dwyer and that discovering someone so young and talented made him curious to meet her, but the fact that Seeing each other did not imply having a sexual relationship, although now he knows that he should never have approached a 17-year-old girl like that, or even an 18-year-old girl. “Curiosity killed the cartoonist,” she writes. “Seeing my messages, the ones she has saved, is horrifying. She wasn't trying to offer professional favors to anyone to use my 'position' (what a joke…) to get into anyone's panties. “We’re all in the art game, so why not introduce new friends to old friends?”

On the other hand, he affirms that the accusations of the second woman, Molly Wright, are false and that he never wanted to maintain a relationship with her, that they had sexual relations on two occasions because she was interested during the time of the covid-19 pandemic , but that he never wanted to go further and that everything ended naturally.

He claims that Wright's words are “an enigma” for him and that “her actions border on the criminal”: “The 'he said-she said' thing never works, but nothing she said ever happened and I can't believe it.” that she was so malicious and put it all together like this. Now that I am officially canceled, I think my family is going to file a civil lawsuit and will have to be held accountable.” “She is a mean and spiteful woman, punishing and false. My house was burning and she poured gasoline on it,” she says.

In addition to denying the accusations, in the rest of his note Piskor stated that social networks were important for him to meet people, since he was a “lonely guy” and “never completely happy” with his drawing skills. In the letter he claimed that there were people who had tried to help him — among them his co-host, Jim Rugg, who he claims came to his house without asking him and gave him a hug and told him he loved him — but that he was not “strong enough.” ” and that he was clear that he was no longer “part of the tribe”, that he was “exiled and disowned”. He knew the shame wouldn't go away and he couldn't survive it: “I wouldn't wish this shit on my worst enemy.”

“Internet bullies have murdered me. There are lots of them. Some of you contributed entirely to my death while having fun with gossip. I was not artificial intelligence, I was a real human being. “You were undermining my self-esteem throughout the week until I evaporated,” Piskor said in his last words, in which he also asked for forgiveness from his family and his dearest friends: “I hope this makes people think twice when they join to fuel such an internet frenzy.”

People with suicidal behavior and their families can call 024, a helpline of the Ministry of Health. You can also contact the Hope Telephone (717 003 717), dedicated to preventing this problem. In cases that affect minors, the Anar Foundation has the telephone number 900 20 20 10 and the chat page https://www.anar.org/ of Help for Children and Adolescents.

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