‘Hip Hop Family Tree’ Cartoonist Ed Piskor Revisits Childhood Home, Early Work In New Mini-Documentary [Video]

Graphic novelist Ed Piskor grew up in Pittsburgh at the intersection of hip-hop and comics.

That's one of the takeaways from the mini-documentary that accompanied a recent profile of the Hip Hop Family Tree creator in Pittsburgh Magazine. In it, Piskor visits his childhood home -- now totally dilapidated and overgrown -- and finds his old sketches on the walls. He talks about the playgrounds nearby where hip-hop found a footing in Pittsburgh, and visits the comic shop that helped launch his career.

There's also a brief arc of Piskor's career, starting with his work with American Splendor writer Harvey Pekar when he was 21.

It's a fascinating glimpse into the life of an artist, including his life today -- Piskor also goes to his current apartment, which isn't decorated with any art, which is something that his dates tend to find bafflng -- and the documentary is entirely worth watching for its full nine-minute running time.

There's also some good advice in there for aspiring comics artists:

In comics, there's not enough money in it to listen to anybody. You should just do what the heck you want to do.