The news of 12people being killed by gunmen in Paris spread quickly yesterday. Seen as an attack on liberty and the freedom of speech, the deaths in and around the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo struck a chordwith writers, readers, artists and everyone else around the world who believes that the right to challenge is the right to live.

Tributes poured in as evenly as rebuttals on Twitter, with celebrities as well as civilians posting their thoughts. Notably snarky Ricky Gervais posted the sombre sentiment:

Musician Frank Turner, long an advocate of free speech, led tributes and later in the day held a pen aloft along with the hundreds who paid tribute in Trafalgar Square.

J.K Rowling -who owes her name to pen and paper -posted the following, which has been used today as the lead image to many stories on Charlie Hebdo.

Charlie Hebdo had been at the recieving end of violent attacks before, being firebombed in 2011, for a controversial image it published of the prophet Muhammad.

The magazine's editor, Stephane Charbonnier, was living under police protection having previously received death threats. She was amongst those killed on Wednesday.

Due to its nature as a magazine that specialises in the best of satirical art, illustrators paid their respects in disarming and spectaular fashion. Some of our favourite responses to Wednesday's massacre can be seen below.

By Tommy Dessine

By Lucille Clerc

"The world has become so serious that humour is a risky profession" - By Bernardo Erlich

By Hattie Stewart