Posted in: Comics | Tagged: cartoons, charlie hebdo, Comics, entertainment, je suis charlie, jesusicharlie, paris

The Week In Charlie Hebdo – #JeSuisEncoreCharlie

Published Fri, 16 Jan 2015 13:00:03 -0600

This week saw the post-massacre edition of French satirical cartoon magazine Charlie Hebdo print seven million copies, over a hundred times its usual print run, the proceeds going towards the families of the dead.

It was still not enough to satisfy demand. Copies have sold for up to $20,000 on eBay though that is likely to be a fake, people being upset enough at attempts to profit from tragedy to bid ludicrous amounts of money to spoil the bids. However genuine sales of around $50-$500 or more have been confirmed. However an App has now been released for iOS and Android tablets, letting you download the new – and subsequent – issues of the magazine for the first time. And I just have.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera celebrated their commitment to free speech, by taking screenshots of cartoons inspired by the killings and posted by creators on Facebook, and publishing them in a collection called Je Suis Charlie aimed at reading money for the families, but without asking the cartoonists permission and removing certain credit links. Some were more upset with the quality of the reproduction than the copyright theft and state that they would have been happy to supply a high resolution version if asked.

Media organisations sought to grapple with their own content guidelines. The BBC had overturned previous guidelines not to show images of Mohammed…

While Sky News did their best to duck out of the way.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMbwcBYT0DI[/youtube]

France sold out of its initial 700,000 print run on day one, with lines going down the streets of France. It arrived in the UK today, with similar scenes in the few UK newsagents who stocked it, in both the French and English editions. In South Kensington, people queued through last night outside the French Bookshop, with 200 people in line when the store opened.

There have been protests in Middle Eastern countries but, amidst scenes of people burning Je Suis Charlie posters, the word coming out is one of tolerance, asking those offended to ignore the situation rather than fan the flames. Pakistan saw violent clashes between police and protestors, and its Parliament passed a motion condemning the magazine. Turkey was the only Islamic country in which newspapers reproduced cartoons from the magazine, highlighting the country's more secular culture and constitution.

Funerals were held yesterday for four of the cartoonists killed at the offices with, again, mass crowds coming out in memory of the men.

The magazine itself? Full of scurrilous cartoons, mocking all manner of religions, and those who lead them, but also lampooning the Je Suis Charlie movement, and including an article that attacks the UK Guardian newspaper for running stories about Charlie Hebdo but, at time of publication, not the cartoons that caused all the fuss, even as they gave £100,000 to the magazine to ensure its survival.