Hip Hop Family Tree Redux
Introducing Ed Piskor and his mad comic skillz
In January 2012, cartoonist and rap fan-boy Ed Piskor combined his two great loves and launched the ‘Hip Hop Family Tree’ webcomic on Boing Boing.
Starting with DJ Kool Herc, Piskor has been exploring the chronology of hip hop history week by week, in 70's style comic installments, ever since.
A couple of years, wild success, and one book down the track, we’re publishing the entire series from the beginning here at The Nib in twice weekly installments.
And Mr Piskor is suitably thrilled. He took some time out from celebrating America’s birthday to talk shop about the genesis, development and execution of the ‘Hip Hop Family Tree’.
“This is a project that’s been gelling for years and years,” Piskor said, “Even back to high school, I was drawing comics within a hip hop landscape.”
“I love the fashion, graffiti, grittiness of ‘70s NYC and I wanted all of that to be the backdrop to a comic.”
“Doing a linear history of rap music became the logical MacGuffin, but it took me years to realize it.”
Piskor’s vintage style, complete with Zip-A-Tone and brown paper texture, gives a distinctly dated feel to his work.
“I wanted it to look like a comic ripped out of time, so this aesthetic made sense,” Piskor said.
“I may continue to update the palette as time moves forward. We’ll see.
“The entire series is a continuing arc.”
Producing two complete pages a week is a hard slog in the comics world and Piskor has the added pressure of historical accuracy.
“I handle everything in a journalistic fashion since I’m dealing with real people and don’t want to disrespect,” Piskor explained, “So I have to make everything as accurate as possible, and reference as many sources as possible, to get things right.”
“I spend a day to write, which involves tons of reading, listening, and watching every resource I can find on the historic moment that I want to cover.
“I take a lot of time in the writing stage to get this as exact as I want.
“Then several days to pencil. Several days to ink. A day to color.
“I’ve basically streamlined things, but comics is a form that the more you learn the longer things take.”
“When I was younger there was lots of chaff, now I’m trying to make every moment count. I ain’t gonna live forever ☺.”
Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree runs on Sundays and Thursdays.
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