Charlie Hedbo's provocative new cover

One year on, so much and so little has changed for Charlie Hebdo.

Luz - the nom-de-toon of Renald Luzier, who drew last January's controversial "apologetic Muhammad" cover - said last year that it "no longer interests" him to render the Islamic prophet.

The reins of Charlie Hebdo have been taken by new leadership since the death of editor/cartoonist Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier.

And the magazine labors on without eight of its late staffers, including Charb and four other cartoonists.

Yet since the massacre on January 7, 2015, at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly left 12 dead, Charlie Hebdo has maintained its resolve not to change its ways.

As Charb's posthumous manifesto is newly published, Charlie Hebdo is marking the tragic anniversary with a new cover that depicts a bloodied, deity-like figure holding a gun. The caption: "One year on: The assassin still at large."

Although Muhammad is not depicted, the idea of religion in some form as a villain certainly comes across in the cover, which was drawn by editor Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau. Riss reportedly will also publish an editorial this week that defends secularism and the right "to laugh at the religious."

The Riss cover is for a special anniversary edition, 1 million copies of which will go on sale Wednesday in France with thousands more set to be sent overseas, according to Agence France-Presse. The issue will reportedly include a collection of cartoons by the Hebdo artists who were slain last January by extremists; an al-Qaida branch in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the massacre.

Charlie Hebdo, formerly a little-read publication outside of France, received a windfall of financial support amid the "Je Suis Charlie" expressions of solidarity in the wake of the 2015 massacre, which Le Monde has called "France's 9/11."

Last month, Charlie Hebdo donated more than $4 million to victims of November's Paris attacks.

     

Author: 
NZ Herald