Pepe the Frog artist supports Clinton ‘even though she’s talking smack’

Congratulations on the book. Is it selling a lot of copies?

You know, I dont know how its doing! I hope its doing well. Pepes kind of hitting peak interest with people in the media right now, so Im kinda trying to utilize that and twist it into talking about the origins of Pepe, which is in this modest comic book I did. A lot of people are just not familiar with Pepe as he lives as a comic book persona kind of a more simple-minded, chill frog. And now hes taken on the multiple faces of whatevers going on in the crazy world out there. I just want to bring it back down to earth a little bit at the moment.

Landwolf feels like a much more appropriate avatar for malcontents than Pepe.

Definitely.

What was it like seeing The Deplorables picture with the characters replaced with famous heads including Pepes?

Ive only just seen this stuff recently because everyones sending it to me, including, like, media people. Honestly I dont really follow it very much but you cant ignore it. Its all over the place. Its not the first time Ive ever seen Pepe as Donald Trump. When I first saw it I thought it was kind of funny.

I dont take it too seriously I just try to take it in stride, but the thing thats come to my attention is … well, I didnt know what white nationalists were until, like, yesterday. And the alt-right or whatever? Its all very new and very strange and definitely not something that I support. I guess Pepe is kind of its own internet thing now. Im hoping not to get any hate or threats or anything. You have to do a little bit of research to even link it back to me, I think.

You dont sound like youre a particularly political guy. Do you have any temptation to align yourself one way or another as stuff heats up before the election?

My interests lie more in philosophical or spiritual books, and politics come and go. But yeah, Im interested in it. Im particularly interested in environmental stuff, more like humanitarian stuff. I definitely lean much more liberal basically the opposite of whats happening with Pepe right now.

Can I ask who youre voting for?

Well, I was really excited for Bernie, and that fizzled out, so I guess Im gonna have to take one for the team for the team and go for Hillary even though shes talking smack, or whoevers writing for her at the moment is talking smack about Pepe.

Im surprised at how little Ive seen you or Boys Club written about in stories on Pepe.

Beyond Boys Club, I think its even more familiar as a meme for youth culture and teenagers. Its weird that people are saying hes been a longtime white supremacist meme. If anything hed be part of the Green party. Hes a frog, why would he support white supremacists? That doesnt make any sense.

Hes not even the right species.

He lives with a dog, a wolf, a kind of abstract Muppet creature … hes all about diversity.

Is it weird to have to have these arguments?

Its just funny. People are taking it really seriously and its a damn cartoon frog. Its weird on some level but its more entertaining than anything.

A lot of the fun in Boys Club comes from the dated pop culture references that are now funny because they remind you of embarrassing trends. How do you dig up stuff with the embarrassing nostalgia vibe?

I think its just growing up in the culture that we live in where its very catchphrase-oriented and referential to whatever was popular and kind of formed your imagination over the years. For me it was the Muppets and the Neverending Story and the Terminator and the Predator and all these things that were so cool when you were a kid, at least in terms of more lowbrow art.

If you look at a guy who grew up in the 60s, hed be into Rat Fink culture or car culture; theres a moment in time where if youre a musician who came out of the 90s, you were influenced by Led Zeppelin and the Beatles and whoever else. Art just kinda manifests based on when that stuff was most important to you, and you kinda regurgitate it in your own art. its just part of the cycle of that kind of thing.

Whats it like to be contributing to that now?

Its kinda cool. I put out a series of Pepe official T-shirts, and one of them is a button-up collared shirt that has all my favorite Pepes from the internet, which are these more crudely drawn, childlike and funny drawings that it looks like kids are doing on MS Paint.

So I collected them all and made a pattern out of them. Its kind of like a bootleg of the bootleg. Its a meta-bootleg. Im using some of it to my advantage! Ill be watching down the street in a college town and some kids will pass me and be like Oh, cool, Pepe! It is neat that they have no idea that I made the character but theyre stoked to see an old dude walking down the street with Pepes all over his shirt. Thats satisfying to me.

How old are you?

Im 37.

Thats not that old.

Yeah but you know, when youre 20 a 37-year-old dude is old, you know?

Thats true. You might as well be dead to them.

I know, right?

Does the quality of those Microsoft Paint-style drawings not bother you?

Im actually quite influenced by crude art and childrens art and stuff like that. It just opens up the possibility so much. People think: If they can do that, I can do it too! So just as an artist Ive always wanted to have a lot of fundamentals under my belt in terms of how to draw a hand and an eyeball and a face and stuff like that; but then I like to just have that knowledge and do more simplified things. Im not bothered by it at all.

What did you read growing up that influenced or inspired you?

I was big into The Far Side growing up. In particular there was one of Gumby being tortured a couple of mobsters have him on the rack and theyre trying to stretch him out to get him to say something and he just couldnt be bothered by it. I love that absurd, offbeat humor. I was into Garfield and less of the superhero stuff more simple cartoon animals.

As I got into my twenties I really got into Paper Rad, in particular Ben Jones [creator of Cartoon Networks influential, eye-piercing Flash cartoon Problem Solverz]. He had a really straightforward, simple way of making these funny comics where you didnt have to have action sequences or tons of dialogue and stuff. It made it possible for me to be like, Oh! I could do a comic!

What is your hope for Pepe post-election?

I think Pepe will live on beyond whatevers going on in the moment politically. It does, for whatever reason, resonate with kids. I think things kinda happen in 20-year cycles, so I want to go back to Pepe 20 years from now.

The reunion tour.

Totally.