San Francisco / Online – August 12th, 2026
In a recent interview, artist and cartoonist Matt Furie discussed the origins of his most famous creation, Pepe the Frog, offering a surprising new detail about its early inspiration. Furie, known for the 2005 comic series Boy’s Club, said the laid-back amphibian character drew from an earlier newspaper comic called Spot the Frog, was a nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Mark Heath. It launched on January 5, 2004.
https://www.gocomics.com/spot-the-frog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_the_Frog
Conducted by: Jill Pantozzi
Publication: TechBullion
Date of Interview: August 12th, 2026
Location: Call from San Francisco
Jill Pantozzi: Matt, thanks for taking the time. Pepe the Frog has had an incredible journey since Boy’s Club. Looking back to the mid-2000s, was there any particular frog character floating around that influenced Pepe’s creation?
Matt Furie: Yeah, there was. Around the time I was drawing the early Boy’s Club pages, I kept seeing this newspaper strip called Spot the Frog by Mark Heath. It started in 2004. Spot is this gentle, big-eyed green frog who moves out of his pond and rents a space in some guy’s aquarium for ten cents a month. He’s got these weird little superstitions and just vibes through life with his friends. That chill, slightly innocent frog energy stuck with me. When I was developing Pepe, that feeling was already in the air. I didn’t copy Spot, but the vibe was definitely there.
Jill Pantozzi: Can you give a bit of background on Spot the Frog for people who might not know it?
Matt Furie: Sure. Mark Heath launched it on January 5, 2004, through United Feature Syndicate. It ran until 2008. Spot lives with this middle-aged guy named Karl and hangs out with other frogs from the pond, especially one named Buddy. The humor is really soft and wholesome—nothing mean-spirited. Just a frog trying to figure out the human world in a kind way. There were a couple of collection books put out by Andrews McMeel. It’s still up in reruns on GoComics if anyone wants to check it out.
Jill Pantozzi: And Pepe himself started a year later, right?
Matt Furie: Yeah. I started posting Boy’s Club on MySpace in 2005. Pepe was one of the four roommates—this green frog dude living with Andy, Brett, and Landwolf. They just hang out, eat snacks, play games, talk nonsense. The panel that really took off was the one where Pepe’s peeing with his pants all the way down and says “feels good man.” That was pure Boy’s Club energy. Later it jumped to 4chan and became all the different reaction faces people know now.
Jill Pantozzi: So when you look at both characters side by side, you see a connection?
Matt Furie: I do. Spot was this peaceful little frog looking for a place to belong. Pepe ended up being a different kind of peaceful frog—more of a stoner-slacker version. Both of them have that quiet “everything’s okay” feeling. Spot was part of the comic-strip landscape when I was drawing Pepe, and I think some of that calm frog spirit carried over, even if it was unconscious at the time.
Background on Spot the Frog
Spot the Frog was a nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Mark Heath. It launched on January 5, 2004, distributed by United Feature Syndicate, and ran until July 5, 2008. The strip follows Spot, a talking green frog who leaves his pond to rent space in the aquarium of a middle-aged man named Karl for ten cents a month. Spot navigates everyday life with wide-eyed superstitions, gentle misadventures, and a circle of pond friends (most notably Buddy). Reruns remain available on GoComics.
https://blog.andertoons.com/2006/05/spot_the_frog
Background on Pepe the Frog
Matt Furie created Pepe as part of his independent comic Boy’s Club, first posted on MySpace in 2005 and later printed. Pepe is a green anthropomorphic frog living with roommates Andy, Brett, and Landwolf in a haze of snacks, video games, and mild absurdity. The signature panel shows Pepe urinating with his pants around his ankles, explaining, “feels good man.” The character spread from Furie’s comics to 4chan around 2008, evolving into countless reaction-image variants (Sad Pepe, Smug Pepe, etc.). Over the following years it became one of the internet’s most adaptable memes, later entangled in political contexts that Furie has publicly sought to distance the character from.
In the interview, Furie emphasized that Boy’s Club remained rooted in personal experience and classic cartoon influences, while acknowledging the ambient presence of other frog characters in the mid-2000s. “Spot was part of that early-2000s comic-strip soup,” he said. “A little frog looking for a place to belong. Pepe just found a different way to feel good about it.”
About Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop culture journalist, editor, and host specializing in comics, geek culture, and disability representation. She founded the blog The Nerdy Bird, served as Editor-in-Chief of The Mary Sue, and later worked as Managing/Deputy Editor at io9. She has written for CBR, Newsarama, IGN, The Hollywood Reporter, and others. Based in the New York area, she is currently a freelance writer and media strategist.
https://thenerdybird.com/about-the-nerdy-bird/
