Madrid, Jan 8 (IANS/EFE) Cartoonists from all over the world paid a a graphic tribute to their fellow artists on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, after the magazine's editor and three of its top cartoonists were among the 12 people killed in a terror attack in Paris.
The cartoons they produced in response to the outrage depicted sadness and rage over the deaths of the magazine's senior editor, Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb and three other well-known cartoonists, who signed their work as Wolinski, Cabu and Tignous.
Chilean illustrator Francisco J. Olea wrote on his official Twitter account that Jan 7 should be declared World Day of the Caricaturist.
To pay tribute to the murdered journalists of Charlie Hebdo, Olea posted a picture of a pencil, a marker, an eraser, a pen cover and a geometric triangle, all aligned so as to imitate the shape of a rifle.
Above the illustration he wrote a slogan calling on journalists to "take up arms", in what was obviously a reference to the pen.
Olive branches were one of the motifs have circulated most often on social media websites under the slogan "Je Suis Charlie Hebdo" or "I am Charlie Hebdo".
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Australian David Pope at The Canberra Times, drew a terrorist wearing a black outfit and carrying a weapon, with the victim he has just killed lying in front of him. The terrorist is saying, "He drew first."
Ruben L. Oppenheimer of the Netherlands highlighted parallels between Wednesday's attack and the Sep 11, 2001, attacks in the US, with two pencils standing upright next to each other suggesting the World Trade Towers.
In another remarkable image, the well-known Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff drew two terrorists shooting at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo.
The bullets penetrate the building and come out on the other side where they strike a mosque. The caption reads: "The attack claims another victim."
Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, drew a woman similar to the Statue of Liberty holding up a pen, while carrying in the other hand a copy of Charlie Hebdo.
On its cover, a Muslim man is kissing one of the newspaper's cartoonists, followed by the comment "L'Amour Plus Fort Que La Haine" or "Love is Stronger than Hate".
Frenchman Patrick Chappatte published in The New York Times International edition a drawing of a man with a rose in his hand beside a picture of those who died in the attack, next to the phrase "Without humour we are all dead" while the cartoonist signed the caricature with "in memory of Cabu, Wolinski, Charb and Tignous".
Argentine artist Bernardo Erlich wrote on a black background that "the world is so serious that humour has become a risky profession" and underneath the phrase he drew a copy of Charlie Hebdo covered in blood.
In a more belligerent mode, Joep Bertrams of the Netherlands drew a Muslim figure holding a sword covered in blood in his hand while standing next to a beheaded man sticking his tongue out, while wearing a Charlie Hebdo T-shirt.
Spanish cartoonist Forges published a drawing in Thursday's edition of the daily El País where you can read the phrase "Liberty, equality, fraternity and Charlie Hebdo" scattered with smoking bullet holes.
Muslim illustrator Khalid Albaih drew a Muslim man flanked by two of his co-religionists. The one on his left accuses him of being on the side of terrorists, while the one on his right accuses him of being on the side of atheists, while the man utters "I am a Muslim."
--IANS/EFE
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