As some of you have already noticed, there’ve been some changes to the website – I finally had time to update it over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Mainly I did it because ComicPress now supports storyline structure (i.e. organizing by chapters), and the old version I’ve been using didn’t. Not very important now, but it’ll probably come in handy as the number of pages increase… I’m still tweaking the site, but if you notice anything weird please let me know, and I’ll try to fix it. Emphasis on try… for an engineer my computer skills are pretty abysmal… 
Paging Liu Bei… Paging Liu Bei… Reality calling, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Liu Bei: lalalalala I can’t hear you
ah… the ol “18th level of hell”… i remember when i first read Dante’s Inferno… thinking, man, we Chinese are so much better… twice as good, one might say… a measly 9 circles of hell? Pasha! we Chinese have a full 18!
Yeah… we rock!
When I was a little kid in Hong Kong there was this rich dude’s estate that got turned into a sort of theme park, and a big part of it was based on the Chinese version of hell with its 18 levels. There were these huge pictures and sculptures of demons and blood and people being boiled in oil… you know all the happy and up-lifting happenings usually associated with Hell. And yes, my parents took me to it… and that ladies and gentlemen is how you raise mentally healthy, well-balanced children.
On the eight circle of hell, you have Mahomet-Baphomet, displaying his entrails while Ali’s head is smitten in two:
http://howcanpeoplebesostupid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/MuhammadHell1.jpg
http://zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/dantes_inferno/04800419trim.jpg
The Ultimate depiction of Mahomet has to be Salvador Dali’s…HA!!!:
http://zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/dantes_inferno/hell29.jpg
This one depict the Catholic church’s surrender to conquering Islam:
http://zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/dantes_inferno/VIGNETTA.jpg
Dante (wearing the cap, on the cliff edge): “Isn’t that guy divided in half from head to butt Mahomet-Baphomet?”
Virgil (on the far right): “Yes, he is divided because he brought division to society!
While the other one there with his trousers down is Italian politics concerning Islam.”
Immediate, the Church issued a sordid apology for the cartoon, where satan’s spawn Mahomet is not even depicted!
Given the religious sentiments of the time it’s not surprising Dante would depict Muhammad in a less-than-flattering manner. It is somewhat surprising that the Catholic Church would be so ready to apologize over a cartoon – considering it took them 350 years to apologize to Galileo…
*Pats self on back for standing up for fellow cartoonists and scientists all in one sentence. Nerd Power!