The humorist Stéphane Charbonnier, whose cartoons were signed Charb, died at the age of 47 in the attack last week on the offices in Paris of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The publication’s editor and the main author of its editorials and cartoons against Islamic terrorists, he was the principal target of two gunmen who went on to kill 12 people.
Charbonnier made his professional debut as a contributor to La Grosse Bertha (Big Bertha, after the German first world war artillery gun), a satirical weekly opposing the Gulf war of 1991. After disagreements at the magazine the following year about the degree of political content, its editor, the singer Philippe Val, and Jean Cabut (the artist Cabu, who was also killed in the attack), left, taking with them other established contributors, as well as the next generation, including Charbonnier. They revived the title Charlie Hebdo, whose first incarnation had lasted from the death of Charles de Gaulle in 1970 until 1981. The revived publication first appeared in July 1992.
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