It has been called to the Northern Star’s attention that it ran two comic strips that plagiarized other artists’ work.

The author of an Internet-based comic strip “Ozy & Millie” e-mailed Star editors Thursday indicating the plagiarism of two Internet-based comic strips. Two “Northern Highz” strips contained dialogue nearly identical to that in two separate copyrighted cartoons, including “Ozy & Millie,” by D.C. Simpson and “Sinfest,” by Tatsuya Ishida.

The Star immediately pulled the “Northern Highz” cartoon strip from the Friday edition pending investigation.

It was determined that the cartoonist was aware of the comic strips, but denied any intent to take advantage of another cartoonist’s work.

The cartoonist also said that he intended to pay homage to the original authors by including them in his strip, but regretted not explaining where the inspiration for the two cartoons came from.

The cartoonist’s employment at the Star was terminated Sunday.

The Star does not tolerate plagiarism, and respects copyright law.

We apologize to the authors of the original cartoons and to our readers for publishing plagiarized material.