After a brief and tumultuous life, Pepe the Frog is dead.

Or at least, that’s how he was drawn in the latest comic strip from the artist who first created him.

While the cartoon frog is sure to remain a fixture in some corners of social media, its creator, Matt Furie, appeared to symbolically close the book on a character that has taken on a troubling life of its own.

Drawings of Pepe have increasingly been linked to racism and anti-Semitism over the past two years, despite Mr. Furie’s insistence that the character was meant to be positive. The Anti-Defamation League designated the frog’s likeness a hate symbol in 2016 and later pledged to help Mr. Furie reclaim it.