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Pepe is the quintessential example of the internet discovering something funny, creating a joke from it, and giving it a life of its own. After web surfers discovered the huge-eyed frog, he was originally used for relatively innocuous purposes on sites such as 4chan (you'll still see him in generic "feels good man" and "feels bad man" memes). However, alt-right communities like 4chan's /pol/ and Reddit's /r/the_donald eventually latched on to him as a mascot for both racist views and support for Donald Trump.

Combine that close connection with mainstream exposure (Trump even tweeted an image of himself as Pepe) and it would be very, very hard to disassociate the character from the far right ideology he has come to represent. We checked in on both /pol/ and /r/the_donald, and both are celebrating Pepe's "death" as proof that they effectively own his identity.

You're not likely to see too many other examples of this happening. However, this also illustrates the sense of helplessness that creators sometimes face online. How do you take legal action to protect your work when anyone with a social account and a search engine can abuse it? Furie's decision to kill Pepe may be his best bet. He might not get to reclaim Pepe or get compensation, but he can at least prove that he's not involved in spreading hate.

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Pepe the Frog is dead, but that won't stop 4chan

New York Times

Pepe the Frog Is Dead, or So His Creator Hopes New York Times After a brief and tumultuous life, Pepe the Frog is dead. Or at least, that's how he was drawn in the latest comic strip from the artist who first created him. While the cartoon frog is sure to remain a fixture in some corners of social media, its ... Pepe the Frog became a hate symbol. Now he's just a dead hate symbol.Washington Post Alt-Right Meme 'Pepe The Frog' Laid To Rest Over The Weekend. Will He Stay Dead?Forbes Pepe the Frog 'is killed off to avoid being a hate symbol'BBC News The Verge -CBS San Francisco Bay Area -New York Magazine -TIME all 65 news articles »

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Pepe the Frog Is Dead, or So His Creator Hopes - New York Times

The cartoonist who created Pepe The Frog has killed off the character in a comic strip, followingmonths of trying to rehabilitate the frog after it was co-opted by the alt-right.

Artist Matt Furie created the cartoon character in 2005 for the comic book Boys Club, but it was not until the 2016 election that Pepe was adopted by the alt-right online as a mascot for their support of then-candidate Donald Trump.

Since then, the character has achieved notoriety as a symbol for white-supremacy, and was declared a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.

Furie was devastated by the perversion of his beloved cartoon frog, upset that racists and anti-Semites are using a once peaceful frog-dude from my comic book as an icon of hate.

In a statement put out by Furie and cartoon publisher Fantagraphics in November, they referred to Pepe as an eternally chill comic book character and condemned the illegal and repulsive appropriations of the character by racist fringe groups linked to the alt right movement and the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

Furie launched a #SavePepe campaign to try and wrest back the frog from the alt-right and restore its image as a positive character. After waging the campaign for months, it appears Furie has now conceded defeat, finally killing off the character in a single cartoon strip showing Pepe in a casket.

While the symbolism of killing Pepe in a comic strip may finally put Furies mind at rest, its unclear it will have any effect on the frogs standing as an alt-right hero. On alt-right message boards, commenters celebrated Furies attempts to kill Pepe, claiming he has only made the frog stronger.

[image via screengrab]

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Creator of Pepe The Frog Kills Off Character; Alt-Right Celebrates - Mediaite

Spare a thought for poor Matt Furie, a wonderful indie comics creator whose Boys' Club comics featured a lovable frog called Pepe that was adopted by the neofascist movement (the so-called "alt-right") as a symbol for racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny.

Furie tried to rehabilitate his creation, which is classed by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol, but did not succeed.

So yesterday, in a single page comic included in the Free Comic Book Day title World's Greatest Comics, Matt Furie killed off his creation.

I really feel for Furie -- it's hard to imagine a shittier fate for one's lovable creation that for it to be transformed into a symbol used by the worst people on the internet to harass and terrorize people. Furie and Fantagraphics published a Boys' Club anthology last year -- you can support him by getting a copy.

Today, on Free Comic Book Day, as part of Worlds Greatest Cartoonists, Furie published a one-page comicof Pepes wake. In the strip, Pepe lies in a casket while his Boys Club friends Landwolf, Brett, and Andy gather round to memorialize him. Though the tone is still marked by irreverent, slacker humor (Landwolf pours booze on Pepes face to toast him), its a clear declaration that Pepe is now dead. The alt-right has killed the joy.

Guess What Happened to Pepe the Frog on Free Comic Book Day [Marykate Jasper/The Mary Sue]

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Matt Furie celebrated yesterday's Free Comic Book Day by killing off Pepe the Frog - Boing Boing

After fighting an uphill battle to reclaim the feel-good image of his popular character after it was perverted by a culture of hate, cartoonist Matt Furie laid to rest Pepe the Frog in Fantagraphics Free Comic Book Day offering, Worlds Greatest Cartoonists. In a one-page strip, Pepe lies in an open casket while Boys Club friends Landwolf, Brett and Andy mourn him in their irreverent fashion.

Furie debuted Pepe and the Boys Club characters on his MySpace blog in 2005 and published four issues of the crews adventures through Buenaventura Press, stories that were collected into a single volume by Fantagraphics in 2016. Pepe, as seen in Boys Club, is a mellow dude getting stoned with his friends, regularly engaging in gross-out humor. But more recently, Pepe has been adopted as an icon and mascot by the extreme conservative alt-right movement, and as memes showing the chill frog promoting white nationalist and anti-semitic messages graduated from 4chan and Reddit into the mainstream, the Anti-Defamation League last year designated Pepe a hate symbol.

RELATED: Meet Pepes Daddy Matt Furie Talks Boys Club

Pepe had starred in more innocent memes for years, his Feels good, man mantra applicable to all manner of situations. But as detailed by the Daily Beast, this began to change in 2015 thanks to a coordinated campaign on a subversive corner of 4chan. A self-identified white nationalist told the Daily Beast that, We basically mixed Pepe in with Nazi propaganda, etc. We built that association. When, later, Pepe was used in images promoting Donald Trumps bid for the presidency, the memes served both as a coded message to the alt-right subculture and, through exposure of their version of Pepe to mainstream audiences, an amplification of the groups more extreme content.

Furie and Fantagraphics denounced the alt-rights use of Pepe. Its completely insane that Pepe has been labeled a symbol of hate, he wrote in an essay for Time magazine. Its a nightmare, and the only thing I can do is see this as an opportunity to speak out against hate.

Before Pepe the Frog was a meme designated a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, he began his life as a blissfully stoned frog in my comic book Boys Club, where he enjoyed a simple life of snacks, soda and pulling his pants all the way down to go pee, Furie wrote in Time. As early Pepe memes elevated his popularity and Furie was entertaining multiple licensing deals, the cartoonist recalls thinking, Memes rule!

But that was before 2016, a time when our culture evolved to include Internet culture in this election (mostly to seek out the Millennial vote). A smug Trump-Pepe was shared by Trump himself on Twitter in the beginning of the election race, a move I assumed was a nod to young voters. Or perhaps it was a more sinister nod to some fringe, racist groups that used Pepe as a mascot for their agenda. Or just another famous person sharing a Pepe meme because its cool (like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj did in the past). I have no idea.

Furie ended his essay by stating that Pepe is love, and soon responded with a new comic showing Pepe horrified at what hes become.

Earlier in 2016, around the time Fantagraphics Boys Club collection was released, Furie spoke with CBR about his creations. [T]he characters in Boys Club will always be a part of me. Andy the wise guy, Landwolf the party animal, Brett the fashionable dancer, and Pepe the chill frog they are all tweaked reflections of my own values and sensibilities, Furie said at the time. Their personalities unfolded and blossomed as time went on, but just like the person in your life that you love the most, one day they will die. And death can be as beautiful as life, because its what makes life important.

Now, it would seem, that day has come. The rehabilitation of Pepe was always going to be a struggle, and its hard to imagine Furie taking much joy in creating new Pepe strips knowing that, whatever his own intentions, the character would read through tinted lenses.

While its unlikely Pepes official death will stop extremists from co-opting his image, this was, perhaps, the most effective way for Furie to reclaim his character; Pepes soul has returned to his creator. Rest in Peace.

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Pepe the Frog Is Dead: Creator Kills the White Supremacist ... - CBR - CBR (blog)