Introduction

In 2021, Charlie Hebdo's press, Les Échappés, published Janvier 2015, Le Procès, a sober, well-documented book about the trial of the terrorist attacks on the journal that shook the world in 2015. The trial, which took place from 2 September to 16 December 2020, brought 14 people to the dock who were accused of having been accomplices to the terrorists (who themselves had died during the attacks), and gave survivors, family, police and hostages the chance to give a testimony of the events, often for the first time. Written by Yannick Haenel and illustrated by François Boucq – who had both joined the editorial team of Charlie Hebdo after 2015, and first published in daily instal-ments on the journal's website and in weekly dispatches in the journal – the book gives a subdued but detailed depiction of the proceedings, fulfilling the request of Charlie Hebdo's chief editor, Riss, to create a written monument for the victims of the attack.

Janvier 2015 is in many ways a unique work. Haenel's writing is precise and factual but its tone is mournful and engaging, and Boucq's sober illustrations in ink and watercolours beautifully evoke the atmosphere in the courtroom without being sentimental. As Cynthia Rose remarked in her review in The Comics Journal, the book's use of a combination of images and words to report on the trial also draws attention to a genre of graphic journalism in which the journal has been a pioneer, namely that of the graphic trial report. Graphic trial reports are non-fiction comics that report on trials. It is a minor genre of comics that flourished in the journal after it had come under the editorship of Philippe Val in 1992, and started to print ‘serious’ journalism and graphic non-fiction to accompany the editorial cartoons and humoristic pieces it is better known for. Charlie Hebdo published a large number of such graphic trial reports, dealing with various topics, ranging from the highly politicised trials of the National Front and Scientology to trials of corrupt businessmen, murderers and petty criminals. The length of these reports varies. Some are just a page long.