| Title | : | Red Room: The Antisocial Network |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1683964683 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781683964681 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 |
| Publication | : | Published November 9, 2021 |
Fans and followers of Piskor’s YouTube channel sensation, Cartoonist Kayfabe, have already made Red Room: The Antisocial Network one of the most eagerly anticipated and talked-about releases of 2021. It is the first in a series of graphic novels, with the second scheduled for release in Summer 2022.
Red Room: The Antisocial Network Reviews
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I never really got the appeal of torture porn horror movie franchises like Saw and Hostel, but here's one for comics. Much gore and very graphic human mutilations occur over and over again in this world of dark web snuff films. Creator Ed Piskor states repeatedly that he is much influenced by the storytelling of David Lapham's Stray Bullets, so the stories are told out of order with recurring characters stalking to the front or shuffling into the background.
The basic set-up is that there are four clandestine movie studios competing for anonymous viewers' bitcoins, trying to one-up each other with the best and most theatrical killers disfiguring and murdering the most appealing victims. There are a couple of clever little twists and tributes to EC Comics and other influences, but it's mostly all about the gore. Gore, and more gore, until it's a bore.
Not sure I would bother with future installments. -
Some great graphics in this one! It is based on snuff films found on the dark web, so you can imagine the content! Trigger warnings apply! Full of splattery gore and violence, great read for hardcore fans 😁
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“I’m just looking to make you a little uneasy, to freak you out a little bit, and if I have to resort to some gross—outs to get the results I want, you’ll clearly see that I’m not above that in the very least.”
I happened to be in Forbidden Planet looking at the new releases and this one stood out to me. I mean the graphics are pretty disgusting yet you cant look away. That is exactly how I would describe very page in this graphic novel.
This volume collects four stories which overall connect in the most gross possible way. The idea is that in the dark web there exists a series of videos known as the Red Room videos. These are highly sought after as they consist of the most brutal and depraved acts carried out on people. The viewers of these videos have their favourite serial killers and tune in on specific days to see them give their best performance.
It does sound unbelievably sick and that is the best way to describe this volume. The stories do connect and create an overall image of a dark world one can only imagine exists. I love horror so this was a pretty messed up read.
The graphics are very explicit and practically every trigger warning possible applies here. With that in mind this may not be for everyone but I impose you to give it a go 😈 -
Didn't fulfil expectations, at all !
Although very apologetic in his introduction, Ed Piskor doesn't take any risks anywhere.
Not daringly bold nor fearlessly mind-crushing as advertised :(. Rather safe and hip...
Or am I becoming numb to gory violence ?
The plot is boring, Ed's drawing style is very nice as usual.
Sorry being so blunt about it but I just wasn't impressed. -
EC type of comic for modern times. Piskor seems to really enjoy creeping us out. This is more than just a torture porn fetish. The author seems more interested in the logistics of his concept and the world building. This is not for a large number of people, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.
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If you like dry heaving while reading, this is for you!
Ed Piskor knows no bounds.
The concept and story are morbid and fascinating. It’s easy to see something like this really happening.
The fact that Piskor was inspired by Sin City and even Stephen King was apparent and made the story and art even better.
This was a crazy one. Not for the faint of heart at all. -
Holy hell. Not what I expected it to be. I had been shaking my ankles to buy this, like waiting for the waiting period to go away in the library system to end before I bought it. But I guess we all had our predilections before buying.
I’m not disappointed, but I am? Very cruel, extremely graphic, but just like. I don’t know. I’m writing this all from a first read, all in one night basis. I get cruelty for cruelty’s sake but…like let’s get some plot going people *air raid warning* I just hope my comic shop has Trigger Warnings. -
Hmm, I seem to be reading a lot of these books that are artist driven.
I've been following Piskor's Youtube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe all year, so I felt obligated to read this when it came out. I like the premise... dark web chat rooms dedicated to torture. It's extremely graphic. -
BLECCH! Glad I got it from the library.
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WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, BUT ED PISKOR IS A BRUTALLY DISGUSTING GENIUS!!!
If you’re looking for some creative horror writing with some gruesome and awesome artwork, look no further than Ed Piskor’s ‘Red Room’. This first volume, and the start to the series, is called ‘The Antisocial Network’. Ed starts us off with 4 issues showing us the interweb world of the red rooms. Brutal killings and torture live on stream for the filthy rich (emphasive on *filthy*) to donate crypto currency to view. Each issue shows us the vast cast of disgusting individuals who are at the top of the black web. In the first issue we are introduced to the biggest baddie of them all, Mistress Pentagram. The sort of orchestrator of the stream snuff business. We see her break down what the red rooms are and in turn we get different perspectives from each issue on what happens in these secret chat rooms. Be careful when opening this one, because it does not hold back, much like if you were to actually open a link to one of these terrifying streams. If you can stomach it though, and make sure not to eat before or directly after, you’ll get a glance at a very creative horror comic.
Ed Piskor shows he is a true renaissance man, as he tackles every bit of work in this book. Writing, pencils, inking, coloring, hell even the lettering! Of course though let’s start with the writing. Man, did Piskor deliver a horror chef’s kiss. I love his overall plot and concept and I feel like he captures the idea perfectly. With the massive popularity and uptick on streaming platforms, this book couldn’t have come out at a better time. Piskor also shows his knowledge with social media, as he himself has a pretty big youtube following with his shared channel, “Cartoonist Kayfabe” (great channel, you should check it out). But I mean this guy set’s up a lot of moments where the dialogue you’re reading is straight from the chatroom. It all actually feels like a live chat too. It’s funny and it for sure is done in a way to make it feel relatable. Whether you’ve been the one to type the stuff in the chat or read it. I also just think the whole aspect of the snuff stream is super scary, seeing as this isn’t something Piskor just came out of nowhere and thought up. The fact that his inspiration is mainly over exaggerated (some cases not that exaggerated ) real life events that took place on the internet sends straight up chills down my spine and anxiety pumping to my heart. He also does a great job of making each issue feel its own, while also adding to the overarching plot. That was one of his main goals going into this mini-series and I think he does it perfectly. It kinda has an anthology feel, but it’s all still connected. Like there are characters that are in each issue who are just simply recurring, but don’t make you feel like it’s something you need a deep dive in. If you want to go back to issue one that’s totally fine, but starting with issue 4 still gives you a great idea about what the whole thing is about.
Now onto the main entree, his artwork. Piskor shows that he is a brilliant cartoonist! It’s almost scary to think someone can think of gory things like what Piskor drew. Some of the best are able to reach deep down and come up with anything and in Piskor’s case, anything *is* up to the drawing board. There is some super gnarly stuff in this read and most of the time that’s not my jam, but there’s more to Piskor’s artwork than just the nasty torture and killing. The overall technique of his cartonning is outstanding! The paneling was on another level, super creative for the regular shots, but him involving the streams *as a part of the paneling* was genius to me. Stuff like the live chat, the donations, the bans, EVERYTHING. It looked and felt like a real life stream and chat. It was a really creative way to make the book move forward and it made the read feel unique. Now of course the brutal stuff was also insane, but again there is a technique to it, a great technique. Because of it being more cartoonist artwork I feel like I was able to stomach more than if it was a more *realistic* style. That's why Piskor shines so well with this kind of story. It’s sort of like when cartoons back in the day would show some borderline intense stuff, and it made us laugh, but sometimes we had to stop and think “why is this allowed?” haha. It’s obviously over exaggerated, but that’s what makes it entertaining. The character designs are also brilliant and terrifying. Each psycho is very much their own character, and it plays to the bigger plot of the story. It’s great attention to detail from start to finish.
Overall; You gotta give this a read if you’re in the mood for something scary and gross. And in general if you just want to see a very talented cartoonist with outstanding art styles/technique, I promise you won’t find it anywhere else than here in the Red Rooms. -
I thought I was going to be really excited reading this, but I think the problem is its just straight in your face gruesome, there's no real shocking factor to it. It took me a while to get into it as well. It was ok
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A disturbing and gory trilogy of issues collected into one novel.
The first issue is about a man with a normal life and loving daughter. Who, in his free time likes to watch snuff films. He is recruited by a group of people that create live snuff films. This issue really dives deep into the horrendous world of snuff film making.
The second issue focuses more on the Red Room creators and the plot is so forgettable that, even though I just read it, I've already forgotten it.
The third issue is about the cops bringing in the creator of this specific side of the Dark Web to sale drugs. Now he's there to shut the Red Rooms. The end has a very cringe worthy twist.
Altogether, it is one of the most disturbing comics I've ever seen. The Red Room snuff films are shown in incredibly graphic detail, and it's very disturbing. It has a realism to it. -
With books like these, I come for the gore and stay for the story. The gore was fun and gross but this piece was very shallow from a story perspective.
Might as well just look up comic frames from Google Images and you get the idea without having to trudge through this. Art was good though. -
The content is incredibly violent, but there’s fantastic artwork, great characters and clever, interweaving plots that will make me come back for more.
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Love the artwork, love the premise, love the gore. My favorite parts were the livestream chats. It felt a little TOO real.
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Ed Piskor really wanted to earn his place in the Mount Rushmore of sick in the head "Eddies". We have Ed Gein, Ed Boon, and now Ed Piskor - The Adult Swim lineup of Ed, Edd n Eddy, if you will. But setting aside jokes comparing two immensely talented creators to a serial killer (two serial killers if you wanna throw Ed Kemper in there too), I really can't fathom the balls it took Piskor to actually release something like this. This book takes the cake for harboring the most vile, sadistic, and horrifically creative depictions of murder I have come across through all mediums of entertainment. It is by far the most violent graphic novel I have read, and I'm including Garth Ennis's Crossed series when I say that. Saying the deaths and kills in this book are graphic would be a laughable understatement. That being said, the artwork is nothing short of incredible and virtuosic. The illustrations serve as a masterclass in both sketch work as well as testing the limits of exactly how maniacal and stomach churning simple drawings can be. This is Chicken Soup for the Souless. Every single method of torture, dismemberment, and psychological torment beyond your worst nightmares stains the pages of this book. The story, while convoluted and chaotic, is still intriguing. In each chapter, Piskor takes you through the lives of the different types of killers, con men, pornographers, and sadists that inhabit these Red Rooms. How the lives of these monsters and their victims intersect, are unpredictable and well thought out. The dialogue that exists in these chatrooms are simultaneously abhorrent and hilarious. The attention to detail that went into both the banter within these live chats as well as the actual camaraderie between the main characters, makes the whole experience uncomfortably believable. There isn't a single light, glimmer of hope, or bat signal in this whole journey. Red Room is unapologetic in every way. The chapter Donna Butcher, plays out like the sickest Tales from the Crypt episode never aired, and contains the most horrid and ghastly content in the entire book. This is a must read for fans of outlandish horror and exceptionally dark comedy. You're gonna feel violated, maimed, disrespected, helpless, and most of all, entertained.
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We open to a forward from the creator himself, penned June 2021. It's explained that a planned production year turned into material done "with that germy albatross around my neck", though thankfully no actual virus, just the ever looming threat. The tone is certainly established here: this is a pulp fiction of extreme gore, filth and fear. "Vulgarity is my default setting. Can't fight who I am."
This was originally a recommendation thrust into my hands during my in person visit to Robo last year. He knows me well. I had to buy it. The story begins with a police clerk, getting through the day surrounded by revolting men playing distasteful games. Suddenly interrupted by news of a family car accident, he rushes to the hospital to collect his now only surviving daughter: Brianna. Interlaced between these pages, we are introduced to the concept and players of The Red Room: a snuff dark web livestream with murdering influencers, encouraged and funded by crypto bros with disgusting fetishes.
It is clearly well researched and painstakingly designed. Any one of the murder-streamers' garb is instantly recognisable and cosplayable. Thematically, the concepts of urges outside of our control, dark impulses, family secrets, cycles of trauma and grief are all heavily explored here. I was personally surprised and even impressed by one or two twists without the narrative; particularly given the inclusion of the original storyboard in this first volume. ("I'm a process junkie, and I know some of you are too.")
While the story ebbs and flows, the art is truly incredible. I am a big fan of heavy lines, minute details and cross hatching, as well as the varied body types amongst characters that are on display here. The colour pallet is purely deep black, stark red or off white throughout; the labour of love is clearly the drawing, and it is highlighted in all its glory. Fans of splatterpunk and films like Saw or Hostel should check this one out. -
Ed Piskor wears his inspirations on his sleeve. His four comic collection, Red Room: The Anti-Social Network, imagines the dark web as a place where live snuff films flourish and have almost become as mainstream as pornography in the age of the internet. The stories are less about presenting problems that can be overcome or finding underdogs to root for than they are about enveloping yourself in a world of repulsive sleaze. It’s about seeing what you are capable of subjecting yourself to and noticing at what point you believe that Piskor has gone too far (for me, it was the Ghoul Gash Fleshlight), which is great because Red Room has clearly been influenced by the video nasties and splatterpunk of old.
The world here is robust, and, in most cases, the pieces of each story fall nicely into place. For instance, the protagonist from the first comic, Davis Fairfield, may seem like an odd choice for a main focus with his mild manners and awkward passivity, but he has secrets that are hinted at and slowly brought out. And his reactions to the filthy underground he’s pulled into are anything but predictable.
If there’s one section that doesn’t work, it’s the fourth and final installation. It’s a simple and straightforward tale of revenge. It does add a wrinkle in that the woman seeking revenge’s father was killed in an online video that thousands of people have seen and causes her interminable distress, but it otherwise plays out exactly like you might think it would.
One could read into this whole collection a critique of the profit motive and how people will go to great lengths to make a buck or how the semblance of civilized behavior runs only so deep, but considering the VHS copies of Cannibal Holocaust and hook-tearing homages to Clive Barker on display, it’s not hard to grasp that this is meant to be little more than splatterpunk in its most modern guise. -
Read this as my kids, one in particular, dig the "Cartoonist Kayfabe" series where Piskor is one of the hosts. That said, I enjoyed reading the annotated after-thoughts by Piskor as he unravels some of his invention and, ummmm, inspiration.
Yeah as the reviews make clear here, the focus is pretty depraved, and Piskor is proud of that (from the "Outlaw Comics Code" to the self-disqualification for an Eisner Award in the intro to the dedicated work on every panel). The Code made me wonder if in 20 years this will somehow be seen as less repulsive, so much has changed over my life so far that I guess it's possible but I sure hope not.
There are themes of vengeance, of devoted family man and Decimator duality, of Deep Cover corruption and certainly of capitalistic competition. Piskor pitches a dog eat dog world for digital eyeballs, well maybe man eat man with eyeballs that would make Bunuel proud. The series does come with some equal opportunity for the eerie...
As Piskor maybe be proud of his book being banned, others here seem more proud of finding the gore here mild to their blood-taste. Oh well....not me, even though the 2D images surely help desensitize the experience, I never felt myself enthralled. Anyways, it takes all kinds, but for sure at least find a few panels online before you invest time and money on this.
For sure Piskor's got plenty of thought going on, both here (the title I think is key, and some of his efforts in the chatroom work scenes allow him a multitude of quick voices) and certainly on Kayfabe. He and his co-host Jim Rugg are insightful, to my limited purview put together a class-worthy education.
Right now, I think I'll go watch this episode :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdiXn... with Scott McCloud from Oct 31 2021 - Halloween has to be the holiday for all comic creators. Tricks and treats.... -
Red Room by Ed Piskor is still the most effed up comic i have read so far, so if you dont like gore or torture or really insanely violent horror please move along, this one is not for you.. But if you do, take my hand you sicko, and go to a very fucked up place for a while when you read this. Dont be scared it isn't real, right?! Right?
Red Room tells the story of a dark web where you can pay in bitcoin to see people tortured and killed in the most gruesome ways, by the most fucked up killers you have ever seen, live, raw and uncut, this is the most ugly corner of the entire web although Twitter is a close second. most of the times you see a computer screen with 'live' comments on how to kill or random chat stuff like in real life. In Red Room you follow the killers, but also the victims, the police who tries to find them and many characters, one of Piskor's influences is Stray Bullets, so you get interconnected stories told out of order, and that really helps for the shock value, it also helps because these issues can all be read standalone. The first story arc tells the story of Bree and her father Davis Fairfield who both get to continue to live after the passing of their spouse. Davis is not who he seems and gets kidnapped by a weird group, and so the story of Red Room unravels. Piskor's artwork is outstanding, and the style of the older EC comics, Pulp stories and trashy horror movies is apparent. The stories are brutal and vicious, but there is also some place for humor and social commentary. Every issue there are some extra's and an afterword. These books are really made with alot of Love but again really not for the faint-hearted.
Read in singles.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars. -
Oh my.
Well, this is certainly different. I saw this newly processed book in my library, and curiosity got the better of me. So, here I am.
For the record, I'm not giving 2 stars because of the extreme nature of this book...I'm just not impressed.
Sure, the scenes were gory, disturbing, and a little shocking at first...but after a third of the way in, I was no longer intrigued and curious. I feel like the torture could have been worse. There also weren't THAT many gory scenes. So, if the book wasn't solely focused on gore, I would expect some good plotlines, right?
Apparently not.
I could be dumb, but the plot(s?) was hard to follow and the characters were hard to keep separate. They started to blur together too quickly if I didn't pay extra attention to keeping track of them. I could understand snippets of the storyline, but I wasn't very pleased with how it ultimately ended.
Another thing I'm not a huge fan of? The type of art. But this is a me thing and has nothing to do with the artist's skill! I'm sure other people might enjoy this type of illustration, but that person is not me. It was kinda messy and sometimes hard to tell what I was looking at. Although part of the fun is analyzing the picture to see all the details, I'd rather not spend TOO much time trying to puzzle out what the poop is happening. -
70/100
Hahaha...well.... what to say about this piece? I occasionally get into the mood for gore and anatomical splatter. It may sound odd but I think anyone who's been on the internet for a while knows what I'm talking about.
This is... actually pretty good! One of my problems with these sorts of extreme splatter punk works is that they push all boundaries when I'm really just wanting to see blood and gore. Those boundaries often include collaterally uncomfortable topics like sexual assault, homophobia, racism, misogyny, etc.
But this actually stayed pretty true to form. There were a couple portrayals of black folks that I found uncomfortable (in the form of some awkward Ebonics) but I don't think it's made with racist intentions, as there is no race or gender or sexuality that is shown as being better or more articulate than another.
For the most part this is full of horrific imagery, that is imaginative and complex. The style is pulpy and grotesque, the characters are designed in neat ways (like Poker Face, very cool), and the exploration of what a Red Room culture would entail is very interesting.
Overall, while it may be disturbing to see on my "Read" list, it scratches an itch in a pretty good way. Not bad -
I'm not sure what it says about me, but I LOVED Ed Piskor's Red Room.
As a person who programs an exclusively Found footage horror film fest, I found Ed's thoughtful approach to comic book storytelling refreshing. A fair amount of Red Room is told through single screenlife frames of live streams happening on the dark web. Live streams commonly appear in films I watch and one of my biggest pet peeves is when the chat feels like it's being voiced by a single person. Ed nails the chat chatter and utilizes it to help flesh out the world. I also love how the Red Rooms feel like a community of Cam Girls who deal in live SNUFF and dress like they're in the middle of The Purge.
It's currently 1:30am and I just finished the bonus panel by panel breakdown included in the Red Room graphic novel and I loved it. I find myself struggling to articulate just how much I enjoyed this read, while trying not to drop my phone on my face as my eyes grow heavy. So I'll leave on this note... If there is a god, we'll get a Cryptocurrency Keeper spin off. -
I wanted to like this more than I did, ultimately. The illustrations are killer, some of the absolute best drawn gore and graphic mutilation i've ever seen in my life. It's truly groundbreaking in terms of it's specific stylistic choices and how far it goes to make you squirm. I have a high tolerance for gore, so this didn't shake me, but it did excite me and that's good, too. The story and writing is kind of bland and crappy, though. I like the plot but the dialogue is just...ugh. I know the characters are mostly supposed to be sleazeballs but it still annoys me how often that translates to using terrible butchered AAVE. Anyways, good comic, i'm glad that I own it because the illustrations are some of the best i've ever seen and I will be cracking this book open again for inspiration.
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Stomach-churning but extremely well crafted and drawn bit of snuff-based horror pulp from Ed Piskor. Several images here were tough to take, even for a hardened horror fan like myself. Gave me the same illicit "can't believe what I'm seeing" feeling that watching TALES FROM THE CRYPT did back in the day, which makes sense, given RED ROOM's clear EC Comics influence (including a loving Cryptkeeper homage in the fourth story).
The extras that come with this trade paperback collection are better than usual, especially the "Director's Commentary," which provides tons of valuable insight into Piskor's research, process, and ideas. -
I wanted to like this more. The art is gorgeous, Piskor went next level. I love the concept, the characters are pretty cool and the subject is an interesting one to explore. The problem with this one is the overall tone. It feels like Piskor is trying way to hard, and it is way over the top gory. Which is exactly what you would expect. Why then is he hedging his bets with sex and nudity? Johnny Ryan is more cartoony but there's zero punches pulled with the content. It makes this feel edge-lordy and juvenile instead of "truthful" to the artist. Which based on the content, that's a real broken thumb.
I'm conflicted on continuing. -
In some ways this is exactly the Grand Guignol gore fest its cover promises, and Piskor’s absurd cruelty is imaginative but also pretty deeply unpleasant at times. I likely would have DNFed this early if that was all that was on offer, but instead I largely tolerated the gross-out in exchange for the tongue-in-cheek world of Dark Web weirdos he’s fleshing out, the smirking commentary on streaming/patron culture in general (the livestream chat logs are a highlight), and appreciating by proxy Piskor’s obvious reverence for old EC Comics and exploitation films. I’m surprised to say I’ll probably check out the next collection of these at some point.
