Australian cartoonists say the shocking terror attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo and subsequent sieges in Paris will not dictate what they draw.

Wednesday's attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo left 12 people dead and was followed by the fatal shooting of a police officer on Thursday, and the deaths of four hostages during a siege at a Jewish supermarket on Friday.

Patrick Cook is an Australian cartoonist who worked for The Bulletin and was in Paris when the attacks happened.

"When the news of attack first broke - which would be the middle of the day on the Wednesday - we were with people who were bilingual, and they expressed to us very clearly apart from their shock and disgust that they knew precisely what it was about," he told ABC News 24.

Sorry, this video has expired Cartoonist Peter Cooks speaks with ABC News 24

"It was an attack on the freedom of expression. They feel much more perhaps overtly than we do in Australia, an attack on the freedom of the press."

Cartoonists around the world responded to the attacks by putting pen to paper, using satire to show their support for the victims and Cook said all the cartoons have one theme.

"That we're winning and we will win. We'll find you," he said.

"It is one thing to say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but it now looks as though the pen is going to require a sword to defend it, and I think that is a great sadness."

He pointed to David Pope's cartoon in The Canberra Times as a "strong" example of one of the responses being shared around the world.

"You have a look at the newspapers in Australia since then and around the world, you will see terrorists, you will see representations of what has happened. I think it'll make us if I may be so bold, more determined."

Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown echoed those thoughts, saying he had seen a "galvanising of cartoonists around the world".

"I've seen cartoons appear on publications I've never heard of from the four corners of the globe," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Cartoonist Warren Brown talks to ABC News 24

"It doesn't matter whether you can read the caption or not - if you can't read Spanish or German or Icelandic, you get it - and that's the thing about cartoons, you see the image, understand it and it's so powerful."

Brown said cartoonists in France were held in high regard.

"Cartoonists are part of their intelligence if you like. They're a nation of great thinkers," he said.

"Cartooning is a wonderful marriage of drawing, of writing and of thinking."

Fairfax Media's Kathy Wilcox said she met one of the cartoonists killed in the Charlie Hebdo office last April at a conference.

"I have a long standing association with France. I lived in Paris in my 20s and got some of my first work there and I've gone back regularly," she said.

"Most recently my regular visits have been connected with conferences to do with cartooning for peace and also other international cartoonist meetings. Charlie Hebdo, since I've known France, has been an institution of satire and cartooning."

Several cartoons printed in reaction to the France terror attacks have depicted pencils in support of the cartoonists.

"It is an impotent weapon in some ways ... the gun is going to kill, the pencil is only going to be able to comment, but it is also a symbol of a peaceful way of manifesting and that I think is the bottom line really," Wilcox said.