Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald "Luz" Luzier, who drew the first cover following the January 7 attack on its offices featuring the Prophet Mohammed, announced Monday that he would be leaving the paper in September.
Luzier said that producing each new issue without his slain colleagues had become "torture" and denied that his departure was connected to the internal staff tensions that have been reported at the satirical publication.
"This is a very personal choice," said Luz, who joined Charlie Hebdo in 1992, in an interview published Monday in French newspaper Libération.
"Each issue is torture because the others are gone. Spending sleepless nights summoning the dead – wondering what Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous would have done – is exhausting," the cartoonist said, referring to the colleagues that were killed.
The left-leaning magazine was known in France for its provocative and sometimes lewd take on world affairs, routinely taking jabs at the high and mighty, be they celebrities, presidents or popes. But the weekly garnered worldwide attention when two Islamist brothers claiming allegiance to al Qaeda in Yemen gunned down 12 people at its offices on January 7.
Those killed included Georges Wolinski, Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac, Philippe Honoré and Jean "Cabu" Cabut, some of France's best-known cartoonists; columnist Elsa Cayat; copy editor Mustapha Ourrad; economist Bernard Maris; and policeman Franck Brinsolaro, who died trying to guard Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, who also died in the attack.
Charbonnier had been living under police protection since 2011 after receiving death threats for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Police officer Ahmed Merabet was killed after opening fire on the gunmen. Maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau and Michel Renaud, a visitor to the Charlie Hebdo offices, were also killed.
Less than a week after the attacks Luz drew the magazine's first new cover image, which portrayed the prophet with a tear streaming down his cheek and holding a sign reading, “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”). Overhead was written the phrase: “Tout est Pardonné” (“All is Forgiven”).
Speaking at a press conference following its release, Luz described the inspiration for the cover.
“I had this idea in my head, but it was not enough to make the front page,” he said.
“All I had was this idea of drawing Mohammed with ‘Je suis Charlie’... I looked at him, and he was crying. Above him I wrote ‘All is forgiven’, and then I cried."
The issue had a print run of eight million – a record for the French press. In late April, however, Luz announced that he would not draw the Prophet Mohammed again, saying it no longer interested him.
"Many people push me to keep going, but they forget that the trouble is finding inspiration," Luz told Libération.
While he had thought about leaving a long time ago, he said he had "continued in solidarity, to let nobody down".
"Except that at one point, it was too much to bear," he added.
The resignation of someone who had, in recent months, become the newspaper's star cartoonist will come as a blow for Charlie Hebdo, which wanted to attract new talent after the attack.
Having been on the verge of bankruptcy before the shooting, the paper subsequently saw donations pour in from around the world as the Twitter hashtag #jesuischarlie went viral and became a symbol for freedom of speech.
Charlie Hebdo has, however, been split over the use of the money, with some staff members accusing management of not being transparent enough about its plans.
Fifteen of the magazine's 20 staff members, including Luz, called in April for all employees to become equal shareholders in the magazine.
Charlie Hebdo has received almost €30 million in donations since the shootings. French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin vowed to make €1 million available for Charlie Hebdo “to ensure its continuation” while the Digital Innovation Press Fund – backed by Internet search giant Google – pledged a donation reported to be around €250,000. The Guardian announced a donation of €128,000 to help keep the magazine running, as did other media organisations.
Charlie Hebdo's management said Monday that €4.3 million ($4.8 million) in private donations, received from 36,000 people in 84 different countries, would be "handed over in full to the victims".
