Honestly I feel like people go a little overboard in criticizing Hart. Yes he's a somewhat untalented hack, yes he has some dumb ideas about depicting women, yes he's petty, yes this and yes that, but there are tons of people like that in the world who have made more money and fame for doing less and having half the talent. His drawing books can give people some incorrect ideas about art, sure, but there are plenty of art books like that and anyone genuinely serious about being an artist/cartoonist will not religiously consume his media and his alone. They will learn proper techniques eventually anyway. Again, someone who is serious will consume how-to-draw materials a lot more voraciously than to stick to one specific author and thus learn a variety of things, good and bad, from Hart and from others.
I used a few of his books growing up but guess what? I also studied other art books by all manner of artists and while my art isn't spectacular or professional quality, it's damned decent and it's not as if I spent years trying to un-learn the horrible things Chris taught me. It's also worth pointing out he gives genuinely good advice for beginners, like the fact that even if you look at a horse from the side you will see the legs on the other side of its body regardless, and his use of action lines is actually really instructive and helpful. Stuff like that. Stuff that people wanna overlook just because hurr hurr he's a dum look at him try to draw mangos. I guess what I'm trying to say is while he's not good, he's not so outright bad either and I think people get a little carried away about it.
Sorry, I'm not trying to call out anyone in this thread and a lot of the criticisms are legitimate, I just thought I'd weigh in finally ^^;
