SCRANTON -- Since the early 2000s John Cole has been the mind behind the political cartoons you see in the Scranton Times Tribune.
Some cartoons have brought harsh feedback over the years.
Even with some unhappy readers, he never imagined people in his line of work would experience this.
Wednesday's attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo still is hard to comprehend.
"It's really an attack on what we do, of what we do for a living, which is to express ourselves, the freedom of speech," John Cole said.
While Cole has no shame in poking fun at Pennsylvania politicians in his work, he says it's all part of the job.
"Part of drawing political cartoons is to get the juices flowing. You know, to provoke or to illicit response to get political dialogue going," Cole said.
Since Wednesday's terror attack in Paris left 12 people dead, Cole has already put his pen to work drawing cartoons of his own.
"I think that almost every cartoonist in the country drew a cartoon. Across the world they probably drew a cartoon, at least one cartoon dealing with what happened on Wednesday," Cole said.
Cole calls it an act of solidarity amongst cartoonists.
A remind that what happened in France, can happen anywhere.
"What happened over there is just awful. It really is. I feel for the cartoonists, and the editors, and their families," Cole said.
