Drawing Tragedy

I can’t stop thinking about the tragedy in Paris. Some say that the Charlie Hebdo attacks are France’s 9/11, the kind of attack so utterly shocking it cuts to the core of daily life. I believe it. Over the years, my French cartoonist friends told me that they were horrified when New York was attacked on September 11th, 2001, that the whole country wept for us. Hearing that made a strong impression on me and I feel the same way towards the French now.

Following 9/11, I had trouble being funny, and feel similarly now; in an attempt to sort out what happened, I draw a lot. Cartoons often visualize for us how events affect our normal, daily lives.

This is the cartoon I drew after September 11th, 2001 attack, which appeared in The New Yorker.

And this is the cartoon I just drew after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

The children in these cartoons could be of any nationality: French, American, Iranian, Syrian, Israeli, Korean, Ugandan. The pain, unfortunately, is too common and too universal.

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