PARIS — It quickly became obvious on Tuesday night that the new edition of Charlie Hebdo would be in huge demand. Anxious Parisians crowded round kiosks and newsagents up and down the city at the end of the day, trying to place orders and find out how to grab a copy of the issue.

It's the first since the shooting last week, when two masked gunmen killed 12 people, including many of the weekly's editorial staff.

See also: Speaking truth to children about the Paris attacks

One newspaper seller pulling down the shutters of his shop stopped to tell us that he’d had 70 orders, and was only expecting 28 issues. It was a common refrain.

By 5:45 a.m. Wednesday at Gare de l’Est, queues were forming outside the station’s numerous Relay shops. At 6 a.m. the doors opened. Ten minutes later more than 1,000 had gone.

Someone who managed to grab a copy of Charlie Hebdo when it went on sale in Paris.

Yohann and Yann were on their way to work and managed to grab a copy apiece.

“The cover is in the spirit of Charlie Hebdo,” they told Mashable.

“We’re not habitual readers but we brought it to pay our respects,” Yann added. Shortly afterwards Olivier, a man in his early twenties, said he hadn’t slept and was dashing home to read it.

Fifteen minutes away at Place de la République, scene of the vigils and march of the previous week, the news kiosks were mobbed by 7 a.m.

Julia from Brazil was buying five copies for her mother and everyone back home. Juan, 14, was clutching a paper with glee. He’d seen the publication occasionally in doctors’ waiting rooms but had never actually bought one.

“I think the cover is really thought out,” he said.

A girl waits for a newspaper kiosk to open in Paris.

Charles Hubert, meanwhile, works for the Metro below the city’s pavements. He knows nothing about the magazine but came up to get a copy and check it out. Mario, a street cleaner who abandoned his wheelie bin and brush to bag a copy, joined the queue to get one as a souvenir. Alain Férage, 71, told Mashable he couldn’t sleep so he popped out to buy one. He hasn’t read it for a long time but wanted to show support.

Over at Opéra at 8 a.m., the kiosks weren’t opening for another hour, but there were queues at all of them. A delivery man was eyed optimistically. At the front was Sabrina Lubas, 30. She was buying the edition out of “curiosity” and because of the horrors of the last week.

“It’s really sad what happened,” she said, before expressing her fears for the future. “Right now we’re together, but I think it’s only temporary. We’re going to see… more racism, more intolerance.”

Aqueue at a newspaper kiosk in Paris as people try to get hold of Charlie Hebdo.

What's inside

The 16-page issue, priced at €3, is packed with controversial cartoons and provocative content. The opening spread features illustrations from some of the cartoonists killed in the Jan. 7 attack; the familiar signatures of Charb, Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski are dotted across the pages.

Few religions make it out unscathed, and the concept of “laïcité," or secularism, the separation church and state, is brought up.

John, a Catholic man who marched with a Muslim friend on Sunday, flicked through the issue at a nearby café.

“I think it’s funny,” he said. “It might be too much for some people, but it’s OK for me."

A man buys Charlie Hebdo at a kiosk in Paris.

Pointing to some of the religious figures depicted, he said he has friends who are more devout, and it strikes a chord with them because it reminds them of their parents. His religious friends have had lots of discussions about the magazine, and they were planning to sit down together to read it.

Elsewhere in the issue, an editorial addresses the attacks of the last week, and terrorists are pictured in several drawings. One series of pictures depicts French youths ending up in Syria. One writer, Antonio Fischetti, recalls how a funeral kept him from being in the office on the day of the attacks. The idea of being saved by an interment would have made Tignous laugh, he says.

Under the heading “Sunday, Jan. 11 2015, more people for Charlie than for Mass," they reflect on the marches in support, including London, and list the pros and cons of the last few days.

The back page features several alternative covers, including one illustration of a terrorist impaled on a pencil, with the caption: "Our pencils will always be sharper than your bullets."

Another queue for a copy of Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

On Tuesday, cartoonist Renald Luzier, who is known as Luz, told a packed press conference on the top floor of the Libération offices he had no worries about the cover.

“I have confidence in people’s intelligence,” Luzier said, adding: “I’m sorry we’ve drawn him again, but the Muhammed we’ve drawn is a man who is crying.”

Luz himself broke down into tears during the emotional session, and recounted how he cried when he had drawn the cover.

Gérard Biard, editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, brandished the publication and insisted it had a future. “We don’t know what it will look like yet, but there will be a magazine. There will be no interruption,” he said.

Three million copies of the paper in six different languages will be distributed over the next fortnight.