Successful but controversial cartoonist Scott Adams (Dilbert) died of cancer on Jan. 13. He was 68. While working as an office drone, Adams created Dilbert in 1989—the strip was a smart, funny look at the horrors of office work, which most of us could identify with. The strip was carried by some 800 newspapers, released in collection form, and inspired a terrible TV show. He wrote several books, including the best-selling Dilbert Principle, and hosted the online talk show Real Coffee with Scott Adams. He also made racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, anti-vax, homophobic and transphobic remarks, which got Dilbert dropped by his distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication, in 2023, and lost him many fans. “I bought a book on how to become a cartoonist and followed the directions on submitting work to the big comic-syndication outfits,” Adams told The New Yorker. “I was rejected by all of them but United Media. Before that, my only attempt at commercial cartooning had been some submissions to magazines such as The New Yorker and Playboy, all rejected.” He added that “I have an endless stream of suggestions coming in from readers who are in cubicles. That keeps me going.”
