Disgraced and controversial cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the once hugely successful syndicated newspaper comic strip Dilbert, died yesterday, Tuesday 13th January 2026, victim to prostate cancer. He was 68 years old.
His passing has been marked with a final message on his official “X” account, that signs off with the advice, “Be useful” and “And “please know I loved you all to the end.”
It makes no mention, understandably, of the controversy that led to Dilbert’s cancellation by newspapers carrying his strip and the syndicate distributing it after a 2023 episode of his podcast, in which he made racist comments. Increasingly controversial, he doubled down on his comments on his views on his official website.
While his strip has fans, opinions of the man himself are very divided. Those contesting his views on X and other platforms, for example, have grim stories to tell of how Adams then treated them, encouraging others to attack them.
The Dilbert strip, launched in 1989 while Adams was still an office worker satirising the environment where he worked, became a huge success, syndicated in around 2000 newspapers at its peak across the globe, and as collections. The strip spawned an animated series.
In later life, he began to write books, including How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life and Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Features, Obituaries, US Comics
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