Scott Adams, the cartoonist who satirized the corporate world with his creation Dilbert, has died. Once one of the most popular cartoonists in America, he was dropped by many papers after making a series of racist statements. Adams was 68.

Scott Raymond Adams was born on June 8, 1957 in Windham, New York. He earned a Masters in Business Administration from UC Berkeley and eventually ended up at Pacific Bell, working in a variety of office jobs. An admirer of Charles Schulz‘ Peanuts since his youth, Adams had long been an amateur cartoonist; his job exposed him to office politics and corporate jargon, which he found to be a great inspiration for satire. He launched Dilbert in 1989 with United Media. It steadily grew in popularity, which Adams partially attributed to his inclusion of his e-mail address in the strip; he was frequently contacted by readers who shared their own tales of cubicle life. The strip became massively popular in the 1990s; rare was the corporate cubicle that didn’t have a clipped-out Dilbert strip pinned to its walls.

What Is ‘Dilbert’?

Dilbert focused on the titular office worker, a hapless, bespectacled drone with a perpetually upturned tie. He works at a never-named company alongside the lazy Wally and the rageful Alice under the thumb of the moronic Pointy-Haired Boss. The strip was frequently surreal, and featured talking animals: Dilbert’s dog, Dogbert, was a brilliant would-be world conqueror, and the sadistic Catbert was his company’s head of human resources. The strip made Adams a wealthy man, as its popularity drove sales of collected editions, calendars, and merchandise. The strip was heavily referenced in an episode of Newsradio where Matthew (Andy Dick) became dangerously obsessed with it; Adams cameoed in the episode. It also spawned a short-lived animated adaptation on the fledgling UPN network: the series featured the voices of Daniel Stern, Chris Elliott, Larry Miller, and Kathy Griffin. It ran for two seasons before being cancelled.

Adams penned a number of successful non-fiction books during Dilbert‘s heyday, including The Dilbert Principle and The Dilbert Future, as well as the novel God’s Debris. However, a number of other ventures proved less successful, including the nutrient-packed meal-replacement Dilberito, which proved to be largely inedible. In recent years, Adams‘ public persona became increasingly reactionary and right wing. He endorsed President Donald Trump, and suggested that Black Americans were a “hate group” and that white people should “get the hell away” from them. Many newspapers dropped Dilbert in response, and he was dropped from his distributor; he continued to publish Dilbert as a webcomic.

Adams was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year; after seeking several alternative treatments, the disease proved to be terminal. Adams is survived by two ex-wives and a stepdaughter.

via Collider