Create a positive Pepe The Frog as part of a community action event project that a group of middle schoolers are hosting at Tube.
“Pepe is a cartoon frog created by Matt Furie in 2005. Pepe has, for most of his life, been completely innocent, blessed with the particular brand of dignity conferred by implacable chill. He had a catchphrase (“Feels good man”), and, in 2006, a starring role (alongside his roommates Andy, Brett, and Landwolf) in Furie’s book Boy’s Club. Gradually, he began to be appropriated by others on the internet, and it was sometimes a little weird, though generally harmless enough.

By the summer of 2015, Furie had some complaints about Pepe’s repurposing. That July, he told Vice’s Sean T. Collins that he liked some of what the internet had done with his creation, but didn’t understand why Pepe was so often drawn hugging the mysterious Feels Guy, and with brown lips and a blue shirt. Reasonable complaints. You should hear what my parents say about me.

More recently, for reasons that really aren’t exceptionally clear, Pepe was adopted as a kind of mascot by the alt-right. White supremacists, anti-semites, and others have made truly hateful cartoons in which Pepe says horrendous things (google “Pepe + [name of minority]” at your own risk), and the heretofore innocuous frog emoji has started appearing in some people’s Twitter handles as an indication of their hate-fueled politics. When Roger Stone and Eric Trump shared their Expendables/Deplorables mash-up meme, Pepe got the coveted Schwarzenegger spot. Pepe has been declared a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, and the Hillary Clinton campaign devoted an entire webpage to unpacking his significance.”

Furie’s publisher, Fantagraphics, released a statement addressing the situation. They are appalled, citing the “significant emotional and financial harm” being done to Furie:
Having your creation appropriated without consent is never something an artist wants to suffer, but having it done in the service of such repellent hatred—and thereby dragging your name into the conversation, as well—makes it considerably more troubling.

Fantagraphics Books wants to state for the record that the one, true Pepe the frog, as created by the human being and artist Matt Furie, is a peaceful cartoon amphibian who represents love, acceptance, and fun. Both creator and creation reject the nihilism fueling Pepe’s alt-right appropriators, and all of us at Fantagraphics encourage you to help us reclaim Pepe as a symbol of positivity and togetherness, and to stand by Matt Furie.

We encourage reporters and others citing Furie as the character’s creator to also note that he condemns these illegal representations of his character. Matt is available for interviews through Fantagraphics. We encourage fans and others who support Furie to block, report, and denounce the illegal uses of the character by individuals and groups pirating him to foment hatred.”

—Ian Dreiblatt is the director of digital media at Melville House.