Cool mash that I didn't know anything about: Only ever seen the Crumb piece before, and even that out of context and in black and white. Made me think of you, @The Moog, and seemed a fine excuse to bump the CK thread, too. Those boys are on fire lately, by the way. Hydrate, grab a snack and strap into their recent Shoot Interviews.
I never watched this show but I've been seeing enough headlines lately to understand that Ed Piskor's career may be screwed.
So sad. The internet mob mentality is brutal. From what I saw I don’t think he did anything that was career ending, it’s sad he felt like this was the answer. I’ll miss watching him and Jim talk comics in-depth every morning while I drink my coffee. RIP Ed Piskor.
I was sad to hear this. When I read about his sleazy behavior, I figured he would pay a price, but did not expect he would commit suicide. I am not defending his behavior when I say this, but I was thinking about the pre-internet scandals of Roman Polannski and Woody Allen. They became pariahs to most people, but they still put out movies and people went to see them. If they had been exposed today, social media would have eaten them alive.
If you took time to consume (as I did) articles about the accusations over the past week, I would suggest reading Ed's letter. It's not easy- it's a deeply sad and unsettling read- but obviously, a very important piece of this whole tragic arc... he wanted to be heard loud and clear on his way out.
This is just such tragic news. I don't even know what to say. Recent allegations aside, this is a massive loss, and no one should see this as the answer/their only option - something I know a lot of us in this community have faced and raise time and time again to [hopefully] bring awareness to. Please, if you are ever, ever struggling, reach out to family, friends, even random internet strangers (who are sometimes easier to be honest with). People are there for you. May Ed rest in peace.
I am not going to lie, just got through reading Ed's letter and there are some parts of it that honestly hit too close to home and just broke me. This entire situation is unbelievably sad, and no matter what, this outcome is tragic. I am still trying to come to grips with this.
Damn, i didn't know he actually killed himself. It seems an extreme reaction to say the least. Not condoning his behaviour, but ending his life over what he did is incredibly sad. Edit: What he did / Didn't do. I just read the letter, he denies all allegations.
Just to get this straight in my head ... Ed must have had other mental health issues going on, but he mainly killed himself because he saw no future in his chosen career. I find it hard to believe that it was solely internet comments that made him kill himself. Maybe he saw people on-mass distancing themselves from him (like Fantagraphics dropping him immediately) and saw the writing on the wall, and didn't want to live in a world where he couldn't make comics for a living? He was so methodical and organised on his way out, Its brutal how quickly it all happened. I suppose even though he stated his innocence, he thought it would never go back to the way it was? Or maybe it was the ultimate fuck-you to his haters?.
Leaving aside the lost deals, the lost work, the lost professional and personal support... I think until it happens to you, or to someone very close to you/in your immediate family, you have no idea what an internet hate barrage (and its spillover IRL manifestations) can do to someone's psyche, and quickly... especially if that person is very online/makes their living, or a large part of it, that way. If you have any degree of actual fame, it gets magnified terrifically in tone and intensity. It would take a superhuman level of mental and emotional health to get through it unscathed. And if you're a solitary person without some solid mental health resources already in place, good fucking luck. Ed made choices, all the way through to the end... he made mistakes, big ones. But he also happened to be alive during the social media era, where we are all unwitting participants (even if you're not on social media!) in what amounts to the largest psychological experiment of all time. He was subjected to an obliterating trial-by-fire before even being given the chance to properly acknowledge, apologize, and work to make right.
The present irony is that there are now people on the internet decrying how Piskor was treated by the "internet lynch mob," and in the same breath using "I was murdered by Internet bullies" as a justification for the same bad behavior. Go to Twitter and do searches on his name or any of the people he named in his suicide note, What you'll find is pretty awful and I'm sure it won't be ending any time soon. We will never know whether Piskor wanted his that note to be weaponized in this way, but that's what's happening now. And nobody gets to debate it with him because by killing himself he gets the final word. If there are others out there who feel that they were wronged by him, I hope they never come forward for their sakes.
Yeah, opinion went from he's a creep to he's a martyr very quickly. Suddenly all the talk is about how passionate he was about comics, and an ambassador for the medium.
Yes, my point was, one minute the majority of people are piling-on giving him a kicking ... the next minute they can't say enough nice things about the man.
Yeah, the group think/mob mentality that can change direction on a dime is one of the scariest things about human nature. I don't really see that it's something that's going to change anytime soon. I was not aware of him before this. I have been following Danika/comicbookgirl19 for years though and watched her cry on IG live yesterday. Hard to stomach. This video is old but I liked it at the time. I feel like you can't make any one community your source of meaning and belonging, the consequences could be devastating to put it mildly.
Yes, i think this is what happened to Ed. I think comics were his life more than the average cartoonist, and once he thought his career was over (or at least severely diminished) he checked out.
