"Dilbert" Creator Scott Adams Dies At the Age of 68

 

 

A 2014 photo of Scott Adams by Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle 

 

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and a racist right-wing podcaster, died at the age of 68 of metastatic prostate cancer. His comic strip was dropped from syndication in 2023 after Mr. Adams made racist remarks.

Associated Press:

"His first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, announced the death Tuesday on a livestream posted on Adams’ social media accounts. “He’s not with us right anymore,” she said. Adams revealed in 2025 that he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Miles had said he was in hospice care in his Northern California home on Monday.

"'I had an amazing life,' the statement said in part. 'I gave it everything I had.'

"At its height, 'Dilbert,' with its mouthless, bespectacled hero in a white short-sleeved shirt and a perpetually curled red tie, appeared in 2,000 newspapers worldwide in at least 70 countries and 25 languages."

Derf Backderf on Scott Adams' legacy:

"As a cancer survivor, I would never gloat when bad people die of cancer. Plenty are, which is troubling.

"Scott Adams was a bad person, who said vile things. Relentlessly, over many years. It's perfectly ok to discuss that, as we do with the loathsome Al Capp, whose infamous self-destruction outmatched that of Adams. 

"Adams could have been remembered fondly as a guy who made a silly, very successful comic strip in the final era of newspaper comics. All he he had to do was just keep his mouth shut and his vile thoughts to himself. He, and he alone, chose not to do that. He leaned into far-right racist politics. He reveled in it. He gloated about it.

"In the end, most of the damage he did was to his place in comics history. And that's fitting.

"We look back collectively at the beloved cartoonists we've lost. Their work is still revered, and they're personally worshiped by us comics folk, and many of you civilians. Charles Schulz, Jack Kirby, Al Jaffee, Bill Mauldin, Kliban, Richard Thompson, on and on. Their work lives on. Their legacies grow and grow.

"A week from now, Scott Adams and Dilbert, on the other hand, will be forgotten and seldom mentioned again. That's his legacy, and he alone wrote it."

Laugh Parade

 

 

Here are some gag cartoons from LAUGH PARADE, a 1945 hardcover book, copyright that same year by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Ward Greene edited the collection and it was published in New York by Grosset and Dunlap. 

 

From the Introduction, titled "About This Book:"

"There are fixed standards in this world for intelligence, moral and prowess in the pole vault; there are authorities on every subject under the sun from plumbing to art. But there is no sure answer, except the individual's, to the question, 'What is funny?' In this matter every man must be his own barometer." 

Here are some groaners, some sexist, some silly, some politically incorrect cartoons of their time. 

Mischa Richter:

Jaro Fabry:

Graham Hunter:

Gardner Rea:

George Wolfe:

Virgil Partch:

George Wolfe:

George Price:

Ali:

Gardner Rea:

George Reckas:

Gardner Rea:

Mischa Richter:

Ali:

Gardner Rea:

Jaro Fabry:

Leo Salkin:

George Shellhouse:

Garrett Price:

Patrick McDonnell on Charles Schulz

 

Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell talks about Charles Schulz on the Unpacking Peanuts podcast.

"To me, what I love about cartooning is the magic how these little abstracts, pen and ink drawings come alive on the page and you really connect with the characters. And I guess as a kid to try to, attempt to do that magic to make these little doodles come alive, that's what it was for me. And no one was better at it than, Sparky. Those characters are so alive on the page." — Patrick McDonnell of MUTTS fame.

Happy Birthday, Peter Arno

 It would be his 122nd birthday today.

Michael Maslin, who wrote the great bio of Arno (Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist), weighs in and quotes many New Yorker cartoonists on the man.

Here's one of my favorite stories about Peter Arno (1904 - 1968):


Some cartoonists like the beginning bit (the coming up with the idea, honing the gag bit I mean) and some like the process (the sketching and layout) and others prefer the end (the sale). My favorite part is coming up with the gag and drawing the doodle in my sketchbook. Not so with Mr. Peter Arno.

Arno would draw and redraw his cartoons sometimes dozens of times. There is a true story that cartoonist Mel Casson would tell, about visiting Mr. Arno in his penthouse apartment. I'll do my best to relate it here, from memory of him telling it some 20 years ago as part of a National Cartoonists Society Connecticut Chapter speech he gave.

So, a few decades back, Mel Casson and a friend went to visit the one and only famous New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno. He had invited them to his apartment. And it really was a penthouse apartment. The lobby elevator went up, and the doors opened onto the interior Arno landing, from which one could see the Arno living room and -- there he was -- Peter Arno himself, mixing drinks.

It was a pleasant visit and Arno was a wonderful host. After sitting down, having a drink and talking shop, Arno asked the younger cartoonists, "Do you want to see my studio?"

Well, of course! Who wouldn't want to see Arno's studio?!

So, Arno walked over to a door, and opened it. They walked in. Arno switched on a light. The room had curtains all around, from floor to ceiling, covering the wall, the windows. "I can't have any distractions," explained Arno. The only furniture: a large drawing board, lamp and chair. And on the drawing board, laid out in two rows, were twenty original drawings.

These were 20 originals of the same cartoon, drawn over and over. But, coming closer, the cartoons were not exactly the same. Each one was had a slight difference: an arm bent a different way, a head turned, one character was upstage of the other, to the right in another, etc. Each one was a fully inked Arno piece of original comic art, ready for publication.

I remember Casson telling Arno how surprised he was that he (Arno) did all of this work, painstakingly laboring over the cartoon, drawing and redrawing it in so many different, subtle ways -- all in finished ink and wash. Casson suggested drawing a series of thumbnails or pencil sketches instead of going to all this time and effort to create twenty finishes.

Arno explained that this was always the way he worked: drawing many different variations of the cartoon until he was satisfied. Casson repeated that it was so much work, drawing a large size finished piece over and over and over again.

"But you don't understand," explained Arno, motioning to the 20 cartoons, "This is my favorite part."



Related:

Harry Lee Green brings a lovely sampler of Peter Arno's amazing layout and masterful wash style from the collections SIZZLING PLATTER and HELL OF A WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD.

Interview with Mike Lynch by Eerie Rotica

 

Eerie Rotica has been a burlesque performer for about a decade, and she also cartoons. She asked me if she could interview me for her substack. She posted the interview up over the holidays.

We talked about what I do and what it's like being creative for a living. I enjoyed meeting Eerie and thought this was a good interview. 

Here's a portion that I (for some reason) snipped out of the interview. It's all about the journey and how it is not linear. Being creative for a living is not a straight line to success.

 

"I was a college administrator until I was in my 30s. It was only then, realizing I was personally unhappy with that profession, that I went full time freelance. It was another artist, George Rhoads, who said to me, 'You'll never be any good unless you do this full-time.' He was right. When I quit and drew all day, I DID get better. But it still took six months before selling anything for actual money. For me, selling gag cartoons seemed to work best. I always thought that the garbage-to-good-stuff ratio would change. I would stop wasting my time with writing things that did not work and wasted time -- but I found out it's just part of the process. That wandering around with ideas and going down dark metaphorical alleys that don't yield a working result is just built into this. At least it is for me. And it doesn't bother me to toss ideas away and think of new ones. You shouldn't fall in love with an idea. Now it's tough since a lot of the old markets are gone, but people still love cartoons."

Animation Screencaps

 

A lot of you guys may already know about places like Animation Screencaps; sites where they show hundreds of animated movies that are broken down, frame by frame, so you can study the camera angle, color, angles, etc. Anyway, it was news to me. A fun place to browse. 

Related:

Cap-that.com

Fancaps.net

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote this poem way back in Christmas 2006.

Her poem got some serious web traffic, and I try to remember to rerun it annually since.

It's bittersweet now, since the star of the poem, big red Rufus died on December 5, 2014. It was cancer and there was nothing we could have done. He had a wonderful life. He adored Stacy, who tamed him from a wild cat from the big city to a sweet, round, purring house cat. He had no idea he was on the internet, of course. In the middle of Covid, Sam got very sick and passed away. Out two beloved Brooklyn kitties. They are dearly missed.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again, starring our two cats from Brooklyn, Rufus and Sam:

The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch


’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.



They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?




So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”


So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?



As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)
Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam

UPDATE: and, the "new" cats: Fergus and Tank and Ched.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

It's time to be with family. So, this blog will be quiet for a time. I'll see you in the New Year.