Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Luz, who drew the commemorative issue of the French satire magazine after Islamist terrorists murdered his colleagues in January, said he is resigning from the publication because it's become "too much to bear."
"There was next to nobody to draw the cartoons. I ended up doing three or every four front-pages," he told French newspaper Libération on Monday,
Reuters reported.
"Finishing each edition is torture because the others are gone. Spending sleepless nights summoning the dead, wondering what Charb, Cabu, Honore, [and] Tignous would have done is exhausting," he continued, referencing his murdered colleagues.
Luz, whose real name is Renald Luzier, is one of just a handful of staff members remaining after two gunmen entered the Charlie Hebdo offices earlier this year and opened fire, killing 12. In the following days the gunmen would kill five more prople while on the run from police.
After the attacks, Luz drew the cover of Charlie Hebdo showing Mohammad, the Islamic prophet, weeping and holding a "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) sign below a headline that read "All is forgiven." The issue sold millions of copies.
Depictions of Mohammad are considered blasphemous by many Muslims.
Luz joined Charlie Hebdo in 1992. He said he will leave the publication in the fall, likely in September.