Hart, Syndicate Deny Islam Insult Editor & Publisherhas a nice follow-up on the suggestion that a July 3 installment of Johnny Hart's comic strip B.C. featured an obtuse criticism of Islam by linking star and crescent imagery to the notion of lunacy and violence. Hart has denied this, his syndicate has denied this and stated that the joke was a play on the word lunatic ("luna" as in moon and "tic" as in "tick") and nothing more. It's worth noting that only two papers on Hart's approximately 1200-paper client list asked for substitutes on these grounds. Hart has been accused of criticizing Islam in this fashion in the past, and has a well-known penchant for stringing together visual iconography and symbols, an interest that has in the past led to controversial cartoons on world religions.
