Scott Adams was creator of the satirical Dilbert comic strip

CALIFORNIA Scott Adams whose experience as a bank and phone company middle manager gave him the material to create the comic strip Dilbert, a daily satire of corporate life, but was dropped by more than 1,000 newspapers after he made racist comments on his podcast in 2023 - died on Jan 13 at his home in Pleasanton, California, in the Bay Area. He was 68.

- Richard Sandomir

His former wife Shelly Miles confirmed his death, saying the American author and cartoonist had been receiving hospice care.

Adams announced in May 2025 that he had aggressive prostate cancer and that he probably had only a few months to live.

For more than 30 years, Dilbert chronicled the absurdities of the high-tech workplace and skewered management. The title character was a frustrated engineer working from a cubicle at a high-tech company whose intelligent, anthropomorphic pet, Dogbert, dreamt of world domination.

At its peak, Dilbert was syndicated to about 2,000 newspapers internationally, placing it in the realm of other popular syndicated strips such as Peanuts and Garfield.

The strip also led to the production of a short-lived animated TV series, plush Dilbert dolls, computer games and the Dilberito, a frozen vegetarian burrito.

Over the years, Adams made remarks that brought him negative attention outside the silo of beloved cartoonist. He used his podcast, Real Coffee With Scott Adams, to offer free-flowing commentary on the news, a platform that led to the comic strip's downfall.

In February 2023, he was discussing a new Rasmussen Reports poll that found that only 53 per cent of black Americans agreed with the statement, "It's okay to be white", a phrase that has been promoted by white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League.