'Pepe is not hate symbol,' says internet-famous frog's creator

The comic book artist who createdPepe the Frogin 2005 says the Anti-Defamation League jumped the gun when they added the cartoon character to its online database of hate symbols.

The odd-looking character has long been aninternetmeme, popular amongyoung people who create their own versions of Pepe and share them onsocial media.

But it's recently become a favourite among members of theso-calledalt-rightonlinetrolls whorejecttraditional conservatism and espouse anti-immigrant views prompting the civil rights group to put it in the same category as the swastika and theburning cross.

• How Pepe went from comic book character to white power emblem

It's also found itself at the centre of the U.S. presidential election, withDonald Trump supporters deploying the memeand Hillary Clinton's campaigndecrying it as"a symbol associated with white supremacy."

But before Pepe was any of those things, he was a "stoner, hippy frog" inMatt Furie'sindie comic seriesBoy's Club.

"It's been a long, strange trip for the little frog," Furietold CBC News."I'm just still kind of wrapping my head around all this."

The SanFrancisco-basedartist, who describes himself as "an anti-racist hippy dude," isn't pleased his name is nowassociatedwith white supremacy. "Pepe is not a hate symbol," he said.

'Symbol for youth culture'

Despite Pepe'srecent surge in popularity in the darker corners of the internet, Furie says the character's meaning is morecomplex than the Anti-Defamation League listing implies.

"He's always been kind of mischievous. But to just pigeonhole him as a written-in-stone symbol of hate, Ithink it undermines the fact that it's a popular meme that means a whole lot of things to different people," Furie said.

"I don't think the alt-right has orI wouldn't give them the power to beablereclaim him for their own.I think he's farbeyond them."

Furiesaid he thinksthe negative hype around his brainchild is just a phase.

"Pepe, as a kind of symbol for youth culture and internet culture and stuff, transcends what's going on right now in American politics," he said. "Godbless anybody who is goinghelp bring Pepe back to the cute frog that he is."