I hope this cartoon from 2002 will not appear glib, but I’m certain I’ve never drawn anything appropriate to the events in Paris. Humorists are hard pressed when widely felt tragedy occurs, when neither business as usual nor silence is comfortable. I have spent time in France, including two months as a guest of the House of Authors at the International Institute of the Comic Strip in Angoulême. Those titles, by the way, are my crude English translations, to save us all some extra trouble. I have never met anyone from Charlie Hebdo, but I have met many French cartoonists, and they were all very gracious. I am thinking of my friends there, many of whom I am sure do have direct connections to the victims. It is hard to imagine the shock and the grief being experienced by the large and vibrant community of French cartooning. My association with them is tenuous, to be sure, but I personally am saddened with them. And I do admit trying not to think about it too much.
