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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 27 June 2017
Pepe lives: Cartoonist resurrecting frog hijacked by trolls

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN about it. fringe movement, a loosely
Associated Press Furie said he was surprised connected mix of white
Pepe the Frog is coming by the wave of public- nationalists, neo-Nazis and
back from the dead. ity generated by Pepe’s other right-wing extremists.
Los Angeles-based car- “death.” “It all just happened so
toonist Matt Furie told The “It was supposed to just be fast,” he said. “Make no
Associated Press on Mon- a joke,” he said. mistake: They’re basically
day that he intends to res- The “Save Pepe” cam- the new (Ku Klux Klan).”
urrect the character he paign that Furie launched The Anti-Defamation
killed off last month in what Monday on Kickstarter says League branded Pepe as
appeared to be a rebuke its aim is “reclaiming his sta- a hate symbol in Septem-
to racist, anti-Semitic inter- tus as a universal symbol for ber 2016 and promoted
net trolls who hijacked his peace, love, and accep- Furie’s efforts to reclaim the
creation, transforming it tance.” If the campaign character.
into a hate symbol. meets its goal, Furie said he Furie said his plans for
Furie and his brother, Jason, would see that as “proof Pepe’s resurrection — in
launched a crowdfunding that Pepe is still a positive the first “Boy’s Club” comic
campaign to raise $10,000 thing.” book since 2010 — are top
for a new comic book fea- Furie’s “chill frog-dude” secret.
turing Pepe. He also has an debuted in a 2006 comic “Once we get the money
attorney, Kimberly Motley, book called “Boy’s Club.” together, we’re going to In this undated image released by Matt Furie, an illustration of
exploring possible litigation Pepe’s likeness became a do it from scratch,” he said. Pepe the Frog is shown. Associated Press
against those profiting off popular canvas for benev- In the meantime, Furie said
Pepe’s image without Fu- olent internet memes. he’s also trying to “gain
rie’s permission. But the user-generated mu- some entrepreneurial con- based lawyer, said all of dise such as T-shirts, posters
A cartoon released in tations became increasing- trol” over Pepe with his at- the characters in his comic and hats.
May showed Pepe in an ly hateful and ubiquitous torney’s help. book are copyright-pro- “This isn’t about crush-
open casket. Furie said he more than a year before “It’s a very American tale, tected. She said she is still ing people’s rights to free
created that cartoon as the 2016 presidential elec- trying to control that which in “research mode” and speech,” she said. “This is
“art therapy” shortly after tion. Furie was horrified to cannot be controlled,” he hasn’t sued anyone yet for about taking Pepe back
November’s presidential see his creation become said. using Pepe’s image without to where he belongs as a
election and nearly forgot a mascot for the “alt-right” Motley, Furie’s Milwaukee- permission to sell merchan- positive image.”q