The furtive shadow of doubt… And if the “aperitif” format – consisting, let us remember, in having a drink with a personality in a relaxed context, conducive to effusion – was not the most appropriate for meeting Corinne Rey, alias Coco, 38, cartoonist at Charlie hebdo (and to Release since 1er April)? She would almost apologize herself that day: “We risk talking a lot about the” 7 “” – January 7, 2015, the day of the attack on the satirical newspaper. Let us agree, in fact, that there is a lighter subject to drink. Offered by Les Arènes, where she publishes Draw again (352 pages, 28 euros) a bottle of touraine blanc is there to relieve the atmosphere, if by chance it turns gloomy. On the ground floor of the publishing house, two protection officers ensure the security of the building.
In her comic strip – the very first of her career – Coco looks back at how she rebuilt herself after the tragedy on rue Nicolas-Appert (Paris 11e), as Luz did before her (with Catharsis), Catherine Meurisse (with Lightness) and Philippe Lançon (with The Lambeau). The designer tells in particular how the practice of drawing saved her from a devastating and toxic feeling: guilt.
Fulgurance and astonishment
It is 11:20 this morning of sad memory when she leaves the editorial conference of Charlie before her end, to pick up her daughter from the daycare center. She then suggests to Angélique, the person in charge of subscriptions, to go and smoke a cigarette outside; at the same time, two hooded men armed with assault rifles appear in the stairwell. “Coco! “one of them shouts at him, before ordering him to lead them to Charlie hebdo : “ We want Charb! “ By mistake, Coco guides them to the first floor, while the newspaper is located on the second. She changes her mind. Go up one more floor, accompanied by her sinister escort. Type the access code of the armored door, under the threat of a Kalashnikov. It was 11:33 a.m. when Chérif and Saïd Kouachi entered the newsroom of Charlie hebdo.
What would we have done, what would you have done in his place? Resist the terrorists, run away, get shot on the spot? To ask the question is to deny the dazzling and the astonishment of such a moment. “Guilt is less obsessive today than it was in the two or three years following the attack, says Coco. But it will never be easy for me to accept this moment, this real self-intrusion, a tragic and banal moment at the same time that could have happened to anyone. You can’t forget something like this. We will never be washed away or appeased. “
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