Sista ToFunky and The Museum of UnCut Funk are diggin’ The Hip Hop Family Tree. We are taking you to the birth of hip hop through the graphic talent of Ed Piskor. His strip is called Hip Hop Family Tree, DJ Kool Herc Spawns A New Culture. The Museum of UnCut Funk will continue to exhibit more work from Ed Piskor.
Living in a world inundated with pop culture themes, imagery, and consumption, I use the, once disposable, medium of comic strips/books to explore these forced topics in a deceptively innocent format. Sneaking below the radar using cartoon visuals, panels, and word balloons I’m able to examine topics ranging from the effect of technology on our civil liberties, to the social effects of pop culture (TV shows, video games, etc), to the deconstruction of the global phenomenon of Hip Hop music.
The Hip Hop Family Tree is my attempt to discover the intricacies required to create a megalithic movement, by focusing on a subject that is near and dear to my heart. The unique art style and approach that I’ve concocted on this project is to create a comic strip that looks like it was essentially ripped out of time, and possibly created in tandem as Hip Hop culture was forming in the 70’s throughout the 80’s. This is achieved by taking the hand crafted artwork and using the computer to painstakingly mimic out dated, and arcane printing restrictions. I find this digital part of the process to be an interesting juxtaposition in and of itself.
One grand scheme that seems to be apparent, with each successive piece of work that I do, is to open the world of comics up to people who may not have considered this medium a valid storyform in the past by exploiting its easily accessible nature. Falling into a certain monopoly with the topics I explore, I am elated, and have the pleasure of marrying people with similar outside interests in pop culture to the direct form of comics. I also take great pleasure in introducing fans of comics to the obsessions I appreciate outside of my chosen medium.
Ed Piskor
To see more of Ed’s work please visit: The Hip Hop family tree archive. http://boingboing.net/tag/hip-hop-family-tree
Ed’s other sites are www.edpiskor.com and www.wizzywigcomics.com
