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Red Room #1
Red Room: The Antisocial Network #1
From the creator of Hip Hop Family Tree and Grand Design comes this ALL-NEW monthly comic book series, with a specially priced, self-contained, double-sized debut issue! Red Room is a cyberpunk, outlaw, splatterpunk masterpiece. Aided by the anonymous dark web and nearly untraceable crypto-currency, there has emerged a subculture of criminals who live- stream and patronize webcam murders for entertainment. Who are the murderers? Who are the victims? How do we stop it? As seen on Piskor's YouTube channel sensation, Cartoonist Kayfabe!
64 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2021
2 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Ed Piskor
84 books201 followersEd Piskor had been cartooning professionally in print form since 2005, starting off drawing American Splendor comics written by Harvey Pekar. The duo continued working together on 2 graphic novels, Macedonia, and The Beats. Ed began self publishing Wizzywig after developing a huge interest in the history of Hacking and Phone Phreaking. 3 volumes, making up 3/4 of the full story, have been published to date.
Recently Ed had designed the characters for the new Adult Swim series, Mongo Wrestling Alliance.
Recently Ed had designed the characters for the new Adult Swim series, Mongo Wrestling Alliance.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 3, 2021
I’m a huge fan of Piskor’s work and I snapped up the first issue of his new series immediately! So Red Rooms are an urban legend (I hope) where supposedly you can watch live streams of people being murdered on the dark web. Basically, the new version of snuff videos. This follows a particular Red Room that has a huge following and a super gross secret behind where they get their victims.
This definitely warrants a content warning as there is very intense gore and torture depicted. Piskor’s art style is absolutely perfect for this. I also love that the pages themselves are cream colored and the dialogue balloons are white, it’s such an interesting contrast (and one of his trademarks). It’s a monthly comic but apparently each one will be a self-contained story set in the same universe. Good stuff if your stomach can handle it.
This definitely warrants a content warning as there is very intense gore and torture depicted. Piskor’s art style is absolutely perfect for this. I also love that the pages themselves are cream colored and the dialogue balloons are white, it’s such an interesting contrast (and one of his trademarks). It’s a monthly comic but apparently each one will be a self-contained story set in the same universe. Good stuff if your stomach can handle it.
May 24, 2021
Basically, a video nasty in comic form. Murder for $ on the dark web. Bitcoins please! Outlaw to the max and not for the faint of heart. Or for reading in public spaces 😜😜😜☠☠☠
My only gripe....it should have been printed on old style comic paper.
My only gripe....it should have been printed on old style comic paper.
June 18, 2021
Refreshingly grotesque.
July 16, 2021
Red Room #1
This is the first issue of Ed Piskor's new series, "Red Room". As the title implies, this is a series about Red Rooms, which are places on the dark web where people can watch live streams of people getting tortured and brutally murdered. People need to pay good money (on Bitcoin) to watch these lives, so the people hosting them make a very good living out of it. This issue follows a man who's a clerk for the police. After his wife gets killed by a drunk driver he's left alone with his daughter and he's having some problems. At the same time some Red Room legends are having a hard time making more streams, because they aren't as popular as they used to and another streamer called Poker Face has been getting all the attention. They find out about the man and how he used to make amazing Red Room videos, so they kidnap him and offer him the opportunity to work for them (which means torture and murder people live, while wearing a mask). The man agrees, so he starts doing that, so that he can make money to send his daughter to a good college.
This is a very unique comic. It has a lot of disturbing images and ideas, but somehow it manages to be great. The relationship between the man and his daughter is very well written. They are having many problems, as teens and parents usually do, but they also have a deep love for each other. This aspect of the comic is especially good because of how it contrasts with all the gore. Another thing I liked about the comic is that it's not simply an excuse to draw people getting tortured. Underneath all that I think that there's a very interesting social commentary, about internet, its future and the way people abuse people's natural urges to profit. Furthermore, another thing I like about the comic is the comments of the lives. Whenever there's a Red Room live shown in the comic, we also see the comments the viewers leave. They are all very interesting and many times actually funny and certainly make the images depicted in the lives seem less disturbing. What surprised me the most about this comic is how much I loved the torture and murder scenes. I've never considered myself someone who's a fan of gore, but somehow in this comic I loved it and I'm not sure why.
The artwork of the comic is incredible. It's very detailed but also not extremely realistic. Ed Piskor has a very unique style which is beautiful and fits perfectly well with a story like this. He has a great understanding of direction, so the perspectives of each panel are always excellent and work perfectly. Also he's amazing at drawings the torture scenes. The way he draws the bodies and especially the skin getting ripped off is very disturbing and also fantastic. Other than the artwork and the writing, Ed also does a great job with the lettering. Lettering is something that usually when is good goes unnoticed and when is bad distracts the reader in a terrible way. If that's the general rule, then Ed's lettering is a paradox, because while it's amazing, it's also very noticeable and distracting, exactly because of how good it is. There's a beautiful consistency in each letter and all the speech bubbles are so gorgeous that it makes it impossible for me to not spend time admiring them.
Overall, this is a great first issue and I can't wait to see what'll happen next in the series.
10/10
This is the first issue of Ed Piskor's new series, "Red Room". As the title implies, this is a series about Red Rooms, which are places on the dark web where people can watch live streams of people getting tortured and brutally murdered. People need to pay good money (on Bitcoin) to watch these lives, so the people hosting them make a very good living out of it. This issue follows a man who's a clerk for the police. After his wife gets killed by a drunk driver he's left alone with his daughter and he's having some problems. At the same time some Red Room legends are having a hard time making more streams, because they aren't as popular as they used to and another streamer called Poker Face has been getting all the attention. They find out about the man and how he used to make amazing Red Room videos, so they kidnap him and offer him the opportunity to work for them (which means torture and murder people live, while wearing a mask). The man agrees, so he starts doing that, so that he can make money to send his daughter to a good college.
This is a very unique comic. It has a lot of disturbing images and ideas, but somehow it manages to be great. The relationship between the man and his daughter is very well written. They are having many problems, as teens and parents usually do, but they also have a deep love for each other. This aspect of the comic is especially good because of how it contrasts with all the gore. Another thing I liked about the comic is that it's not simply an excuse to draw people getting tortured. Underneath all that I think that there's a very interesting social commentary, about internet, its future and the way people abuse people's natural urges to profit. Furthermore, another thing I like about the comic is the comments of the lives. Whenever there's a Red Room live shown in the comic, we also see the comments the viewers leave. They are all very interesting and many times actually funny and certainly make the images depicted in the lives seem less disturbing. What surprised me the most about this comic is how much I loved the torture and murder scenes. I've never considered myself someone who's a fan of gore, but somehow in this comic I loved it and I'm not sure why.
The artwork of the comic is incredible. It's very detailed but also not extremely realistic. Ed Piskor has a very unique style which is beautiful and fits perfectly well with a story like this. He has a great understanding of direction, so the perspectives of each panel are always excellent and work perfectly. Also he's amazing at drawings the torture scenes. The way he draws the bodies and especially the skin getting ripped off is very disturbing and also fantastic. Other than the artwork and the writing, Ed also does a great job with the lettering. Lettering is something that usually when is good goes unnoticed and when is bad distracts the reader in a terrible way. If that's the general rule, then Ed's lettering is a paradox, because while it's amazing, it's also very noticeable and distracting, exactly because of how good it is. There's a beautiful consistency in each letter and all the speech bubbles are so gorgeous that it makes it impossible for me to not spend time admiring them.
Overall, this is a great first issue and I can't wait to see what'll happen next in the series.
10/10
May 30, 2021
Sono un po’ scioccato da questa lettura. Un po’ adoro, un po’ temo. L’ho trovato terribilmente realistico anche da un punto di vista informatico. Lo stile inizialmente mi sembrava confuso, ma ho apprezzato come tutto si sia riunito e armonizzato. Looking forward to volume 2.
February 7, 2022
Started out very confusing tbh for the first few pages but once I realised they were telling 3 stories that came together, it made much more sense.
This story dark and twisted but also has a touch of control and class to it. Its focus being on the ‘families’, makes for an interesting angle.
This story dark and twisted but also has a touch of control and class to it. Its focus being on the ‘families’, makes for an interesting angle.
May 28, 2021
Ed Piskor mentioned Black Mirror as an inspiration in an interview, which makes sense given how inane the commentary on internet culture is (which means repeating “Bitcoin” over and over to prove you’re hip and with the times). I’m not sure which is worse, the death metal album cover “sick gore bro” imagery, or the faux-edgy old man jabs at hipsters and drones and other Young People things that only out of touch old people still think are relevant.
March 24, 2022
Picked this up a while ago but never got to read it. Overall I really enjoyed it. I’ve always been sort of take it or leave it when it comes to gore, but I thought it was well done/well drawn here. I really loved the art though. Stylized but not too much to the point of being off putting. All the characters looked great, perspective, backgrounds, etc. I even really liked how the lettering looked, like how certain words that were boldened looked more hand-written. As a fan of indie comics and someone interested in the comic-making process, this was a really fun read and I feel like it makes use of a lot of innovative comic techniques. The sense of world building was also very intriguing here. I’d be willing to read future issues.
October 8, 2025
Roger Ebert famously defended the brutal rape scene in Irreversible because it was necessary for the plot and, more importantly, it was honest. It was an honest portrayal of what violence looks like.
By contrast, Red Room is gore for the sake of gore. It's gore for gooners. It's gore in the vein of the Terrifier films, which I've never rated. Yes, it's all well and good to see Mr. Creepy Clown Guy rip a man's face off with fish hooks, but does it serve any purpose to the narrative? Does it mean anything? The answer in Red Room is a big, fat no. And whatever social commentary this book is trying to make is made insipid by the fact that social commentary is clearly not why anyone is reading this thing.
This book has as much to say about real violence as pornos starring duck-lipped women with double-G breasts have to say about real sex.
By contrast, Red Room is gore for the sake of gore. It's gore for gooners. It's gore in the vein of the Terrifier films, which I've never rated. Yes, it's all well and good to see Mr. Creepy Clown Guy rip a man's face off with fish hooks, but does it serve any purpose to the narrative? Does it mean anything? The answer in Red Room is a big, fat no. And whatever social commentary this book is trying to make is made insipid by the fact that social commentary is clearly not why anyone is reading this thing.
This book has as much to say about real violence as pornos starring duck-lipped women with double-G breasts have to say about real sex.
October 22, 2021
This was absolutely vile in a way that is obviously intentional and wouldn't recommend it unless you are super into splatterpunk. I ask myself often why I keep delving into it and I still don't know?? What am I trying to feel??? I'm going to read the next one?? Why???
September 6, 2023
Messed up but in a good way. Well thought out concept of how Redrooms could work. Not just a gore fest but some truly terrifying concepts along the way. I'm a fan of Grindhouse & horror movies. This is definitely a love letter to people who like underground horror movies.
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June 4, 2021I don’t know how to rate this book. Great drawing, very creepy storyline and graphic...poeh.
June 20, 2021
Este cómic es de lo mejor que he leído en años.
October 12, 2021
like piskor's previous work, white guy discovers rap music, this is very white guy discovers rotten dot com
January 25, 2022
Sick! Have to read the rest of the series now!
July 5, 2022
Raw. Hardcore. Disgusting. Funny.
August 30, 2023
My local comic book shop recommended this based on my excitement for Saw X. Dark, truly grotesque. Up-to-the-minute horror, fusing the creepiest strides in technology with brutal gore.
August 25, 2021
The comic explores the idea of killer "influencers" and streamers on the deep web. Nice!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews