Cartoonist Matt Furie has ended the troubled life of his most famous creation, Pepe the Frog.
Pepe, created in late 2005, was originally known as the low-maintenance proponent of life’s simplest pleasures, because it “feels good, man.”
In a single-page strip published Saturday, Free Comic Book Day, Pepe is seen in a casket, mourned by fellow Furie creations Landwolf, Brett and Andy. Furie posted an image of the funeral, and a link to a CBR.com article on the strip, on his Tumblr account.
Matt Furie with a great single page send-off. #freecomicbookday #mattfurie https://t.co/lKGUL9lmyd pic.twitter.com/qhngOyoVPV
— Brandon Kelly (@therealphaTT) May 6, 2017
The three-word catchphrase launched a decade of pristine meme-hood, until alt-righters, white nationalists and internet trolls appropriated the frog in a torrent of racist images.
The Daily Beast’s Olivia Nuzzi documented Pepe’s fall from grace in May of last year, including an active effort from internet provocateurs to “reclaim Pepe from normies,” according to an anonymous self-proclaimed white nationalist. “We basically mixed Pepe in with Nazi propaganda, etc. We built that association,” that person said.
At peak Pepe-furor, Donald Trump Jr. posted a picture of the frog alongside then-candidate Trump and his close advisers, as well as InfoWars host Alex Jones and others. Trump Jr. later claimed ignorance of Pepe’s history.
Furie launched a valiant effort during the 2016 campaign to #SavePepe from the negative attention the racist memes had brought the character.
On Saturday, the cartoonist seems to have ceded that fight.
