“Charlie Hebdo” #RireDeDieu competition: here are the caricatures of two Quebec cartoonists selected

The special issue of Charlie Hebdo which marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack which decimated the editorial staff of the French satirical newspaper on January 7, 2015, contains caricatures by two Quebec cartoonists selected from among the participants in the international #RireDeDieu competition.

Two drawings by Hubert Neault and one by Christian Daigle, alias Fleg, are among the 39 caricatures, among the 350 submissions from all over the planet, which appear in this 32-page issue.

Long-time readers and fans of Charlie Hebdothe two Quebec artists were delighted to be among those elected.

“For me, it means a lot. And I am very moved, because these are memories of my youth. I collected them Charlie Hebdo et Hara-Kiri [son prédécesseur]. I still have boxes of them. It’s an honor to have been selected,” says Christian Daigle, who has collaborated with various Quebec media during his career.

A retired graphic designer little known to the public, Hubert Neault, who publishes his drawings on social networks, was over the moon when he learned, Monday morning, that the two caricatures he had sent to the newspaper had been chosen.

“It makes me feel like a little velvet. It’s going to be seen by millions of people, I imagine, whereas on Facebook, there aren’t many people who see what I do.”

Religion nocive

Mr. Neault’s drawings evoke the harmfulness of religion by depicting, in the first image, a pistol, displaying the symbols of the great religions, pointing towards the Earth, and in the second, the hand of God, whose fingers form the barrel of a weapon.

Christian Daigle chose to denounce religious extremism by drawing a God eating the brains of humans, blinded by their adherence to an ideology.

“Everything that is extreme and harmful puts a brake on freedom of expression,” he justifies.

Tribute

In addition to their interest in the theme of the competition, the two designers decided to participate in order to pay tribute to the artisans of Charlie Hebdo who fell under the bullets of Islamist terrorists who entered the newspaper’s premises a decade ago.

“I like Charliebecause they shoot everywhere. There is a lot of absurdity, but also a lot of truth. They casually give an image of what is happening in the world,” says Hubert Neault.

Christian Daigle, for his part, made a point of emphasizing “the courage” demonstrated by the designers of Charlie Hebdo who dared to attack radical Islam at the risk of their lives.