Top 'Charlie Hebdo' Cartoonist to Leave Magazine

The French artist who drew the cover of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after Islamist militants attacked and killed 12 people at its Paris headquarters in January, is leaving the publication, French newspaper Libération reports.

The weekly magazine's headquarters were targeted in an Islamist attack earlier this year, allegedly for its graphic depictions of the prophet Muhammad. It has since been reported that there have been internal tensions within the publication because of the huge profits it has made from sales, publicity and international donors since the attack. Around 36,000 donors from 84 different countries have raised around €3.4m for the magazine, while its first issue after the attack had a record print run of eight million.

Now, however, the man who drew the cover of this issue, Renald "Luz" Luzier has announced he is leaving the magazine in September after being tortured by memories of the attack which killed eight of his colleagues.

"Many people push me to keep going but they forget that the issue of being inspired," Luz told Libération, saying that he no longer wants to use the news as inspiration and would like to return to life as a normal cartoonist. "After the attacks we had to start working again very quickly."

"Each issue is torture because the others are gone. I needed time [to grieve] but I continued out of solidarity, so I would not let anyone down. There was a collective will to respond quickly."

The attack, which took place on January 7 saw jihadi-linked brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi attack Charlie Hebdo's rue Nicolas-Appert offices, fatally shooting cartoonist Jean "Cabu" Cabut, editor Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, along with six other staffers, two police officers, one visitor and a caretaker. The assailants fled as armed accomplice Amedy Coulibaly held up a kosher shop in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, threatening to kill captives should the Kouachi brothers be arrested.

All three assailants were killed in police raids, as public shows of support for the victims of the Paris attacks coined the viral hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, while around three million people joined a solidarity march in the French capital later that month.

Luz admits that the memories of the events have left him with "many sleepless nights" and he needs time to "rebuild" himself. "I only had two weeks off since and six months have passed since the attack."

The huge influx of cash into the publication has divided management and the editorial staff, as Luz and 14 other staffers have called for employees to become equal shareholders of the title.

Despite this Luz maintains that his choice to leave now is a personal one, adding that beginning work on his allegorical work Catharsis has helped him through his difficult experience.

According to him, it was never the intention of Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists and writers to be heroes, but in a nod to the solidarity movement which spawned the #JeSuisCharlie he said "In a few months I will no longer be [in] Charlie Hebdo, but I will always be Charlie."