In the wake of last week’s tragic terrorist attack, the surviving writers and artists of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo are back at work in full force. The New York Times profiled the first day back at the temporary Charlie Hebdo offices, where editor Gérard Biard revealed what readers can expect from Wednesday’s issue, which will print three million copies (up from the usual 60,000) in 16 languages:
While the editors were keeping the content under wraps, it seemed likely that the cover might explore the paradox of their newfound friends. Another idea was clear: keeping the staff members’ memories alive by publishing past work. The paper will run drawings by the four cartoonists killed — Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb, the paper’s editor; Jean Cabut, known as Cabu; Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous; and Georges Wolinski. They also planned to honor other victims: running work by Bernard Maris, an economist, and Elsa Cayat, a psychiatrist, who both wrote columns; and perhaps, for Mustapha Ourrad, a copy editor, publishing an unedited column.“In this edition, they didn’t kill anyone,” Mr. Biard said. The staff members will “appear as they always did.” Asked what else would go in the paper, Patrick Pelloux, an emergency room doctor who also writes for Charlie, said with a laugh: “Oh, I don’t know. Not much happening this week.”
In an interview with The Telegraph, Charlie Hebdo lawyer Richard Malka also revealed that Wednesday’s issue will feature cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad: “We will not give in otherwise all this won’t have meant anything,” Malka explained. “It’s complicated, because we have to manage the future, the funerals that will take place all this week, but it’s moving forward and will be completed this evening. It’s an act of life, of survival.”
