It will be a very difficult Angouleme comics festival they year, as the French comics world—and the entire world—deals with the senseless death of five cartoonists. I’m told the festival is planning a memorial and also seeking contributions via their Facebook page. While they are asking for “Je suis Charlie” contributions, I’m sure the cartoonists of the world can respond in a way that is in line with their own beliefs, given the controversy surrounding that hashtag. Contributions can be sent to [email protected].
Cartoonist Matt Madden, who lives in Angoulême, posted his own thoughts, as a father of two young children now afraid that cartoonists can be killed for their drawings, and as a colleague:
As a cartoonist and as a human being this attack has really sent me into a free fall. I’ve been turning in circles all week trying to process it and decide the appropriate way to respond. In one of numerous online discussions I’ve perused I saw my friend Mahendra Singh talking about needing to “cultivate our own gardens” and that phrase from Voltaire’sCandide keeps coming to mind. It’s another pipe dream, but if only people would tend to their own lives and treat those around them with respect and tolerance…
