Dilbert 1989 – 2023

Dilbert by Scott Adams has ended its syndicated newspaper run.

Dilbert debuted in 1989. It is unknown if the Sunday April 16, 1989 issue appeared in any newspapers,

but a few newspapers did begin showing the strip on their comics pages on Monday April 17, 1989.

above: the first Dilbert Sunday strip; below the first Dilbert daily strip ©Scott Adams

While enduring the circumstances of being middle management Scott Adams created comics.

Adams was criticized for the primitive art displayed in the Dilbert comic strip, but Scott overcame that with the outrageous office humor that millions of cubicle dwellers enjoyed, related to, and hung in their work stations.

Five years later Dilbert was in about 500 newspapers and books collecting the strip were selling.

And then 1995 happened. Scott lost his day job, which turned out to be a good thing because…

at the beginning of 1995 Gary Larson retired and at the end of 1995 Bill Watterson retired. Thousands of spots in newspapers opened up with the loss of The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. And Dilbert was the big winner.

In the year 2000 Dilbert hit 2000 newspapers and Adams was a cartooning success story.

The new century brought a new amusement – Scott fancied himself an “influencer.” It was while he was plying that trade in February 2023 that Scott advocated the extreme idea of apartheid. And the Dilbert empire crumbled. Newspapers, his syndicate, and his publishers dissolved all relations with Adams and Dilbert.

The newspaper syndicated Dilbert comic strip ended with the Sunday March 26, 2023 installment.

above: the last daily Dilbert; below: the last Sunday Dilbert comic strip © Scott Adams

Dilbert

by Scott Adams

April 16, 1989 – March 12, 2023 dailies: March 11, 2023, Sundays: March 26, 2023*

United Feature Syndicate (United Media)/Universal Uclick-Andrews McMeel Syndication

Dilbert Reborn continues the character as a subscription webcomic beginning March 13, 2023.

*Manteca Bulletin

37 thoughts on “Dilbert 1989 – 2023

    1. 6th I loved Dilbert because It made fun of the realities of corporate life. Every office had at least one of the characters: a Wally, an Alice, the boss, an Alseck, and of course the CEO.
      Dilbert was the only normal person, and that was each of us!

      1. So as usual, there’s always someone who expects the intolerant to be tolerated, and criticizes those who won’t as intolerant or extreme. Sadly, you’re probably genuinely incapable of seeing your own hypocrisy.

  1. I honestly believe that Scott Adams is not racist. His comment was appropriate to the situation and not a racist comment

    1. Even if that’s your belief, it’s still something you can lose your job over.

      1. He didn’t lose his job. He moved Dilbert to a web comic so he doesn’t have to deal with whiney woke newspapers

      2. When Scott Adams was one of the few who correctly predicted that Trump would win the 2016 election, it won him some credence… Then, the spotlight was too bright for his immature joke.

    2. Actually he should have been canned long before. Go see some of the other comments he’s made over the years leading up to this.

    3. To quote someone Adams wouldn’t want to live near:
      “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
      -Maya Angelou

      1. He wasn’t talking about the 51% he was talking about the rest. Try responding to information not feels.

      2. You realize you’re making Adams’ point for him right? His point was that when people say they hate you don’t interact with them anymore. He stated that he tried to bridge the gap between the groups before and it never worked. He should have believed them the first time when they said they hated him.

      3. Yes, he doesn’t agree with your politics, so he must be a racist devil. We get how your brain “works.”

    4. Nope he’s a racist he’s just not self-aware to know it lol tell the truth and shame the devil

    5. He called Black Americans “a hate group”.

      He said, “I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” Adams added. “And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to White people is to get the hell away from Black people, just get the f**k away … because there is no fixing this.””

      There’s no interpretation of this that doesn’t make him racist. Your belief tells us much more about you than anything else.

      1. I won’t defend his comments, but they aren’t racist by any meaningful definition of the word. He was not expressing contempt or superiority based on race, which is what racism is, though most people seem to want us to forget that fact. No, he was expressing concern over the intentional actions of people who choose to band together. He was describing what he perceives as a hate group, just as he said he was.

        But again, I’m not defending him. I think the comments were politically and socially problematic, especially in today’s culture, and they should be condemned for that. But they weren’t racist.

      2. @Scott M-
        rac·ism | ?r??siz(?)m |
        noun
        prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized

      3. You guys keep abusing the original definition of a racist. If you take away any notions of he is or isn’t a racist, his comment stands true. For some reason, people seem to think every black person is a victim. I won’t say why that is. I will say that black people victimize more than they are victims, be it in hate crimes against white and Asian people, or black on black violence which seems to be all they know. No coping skills, just anger and violence for perceived injustice done to them, 300 years ago

    6. I agree. I will continue to support Scott and Dilbert.

      People do not read. He was satirically responding to a poll that said 40% of black people were not ok/undecided with with someone being white.

      1. Tpoll asked people to respond to the phrase that is different than how do you describe it. It is a loaded phrase that’s been used to troll liberals and Black people. It’s not a neutral phrase, to many it has much different meaning than being OK with someone being white, IMHO

      2. The only situation was one that he created. He is very racist, rather he or you believes it or not.

    7. Hot take. Most definitely wrong though. Dude had all sorts of messed up ideas and he’s been spouting them for years.

  2. It’s only fitting that the character inspired by the same opinions as his repeated gross outbursts is the one to have the last word.

  3. I won’t miss him. Racial politics or whatever, the strip got boring at least a decade ago.

  4. He is a satirical genius in expressing the feelings of nearly every manager and worker in a typical American corporation. Thanks for giving us the humor we desperately needed to survive! Wish someone as talented could do the same with politicians! Just sayin’.

  5. Really disappointed with his comments, but as they say, be careful who your heroes are because sometimes they disappoint… Not that Scott Adams was mine but I really enjoyed his comic strip.

  6. The problem as I see it is Adams speaks over the heads of the common man when he should speak in simpler terms. I believe he I trying to say is this woke world and media have forced a division upon a society that has gain progress over racism for many years. A now it’s been portrayed and shaped into HATE that overwhelmed the young into believing it. It’s an egg shell walk.

  7. How many newspapers ran the last Dilbert strip?

    No matter what, good riddance to Dilbert in the newspapers.

  8. I enjoy the comical humor. And will continue to enjoy, there are other avenues besides newspapers

  9. Scott Adams has long been a racist and a Trump troll. If you stand with him, you are not a good person. Period.

  10. Attention: personal attacks directed at fellow commenters will be (and have been) deleted.

  11. He started to lose me when it began to look like Pointy Haired Boss was the actual protagonist.

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