Scott Adams reveals (admits?) the origins of "Dilbert"

Regular readers of WWW know that Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] are regular readers of Dilbert, the only comic strip that makes of today's woke America. (It has therefore been banned by dozens of newspapers.) True fans know that Dilbert has a strongly autobiographical flavour, but Mr Adams has never said as much in the strip itself. Until today.

Not that it was a secret. The story has been told in interviews with Mr Adams, and in the dust jacket blurbs on his books. Here's the Wikipedia version.   

Scott Raymond Adams (born 8 June 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated Dilbert comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. Dilbert gained national prominence during the downsizing period in 1990s America and reached a worldwide audience. 

Mr Adams worked in various business roles before he became a full-time cartoonist in 1995. He writes in a satirical, often sarcastic way about the social and psychological landscape of white-collar workers in modern corporations.

Well, there's more to it than that. For years, Scott Adams welcomed True Stories from the insanely funny real world of business, and worked them into his strips, just as the second panel of today's strip says. 

Latterly, life in America -- not just the business world -- has got so ridiculous that he no longer needs to solicit stories. All he has to do is read the papers. As witness this week's politically incorrect strips in which the pointy-haired boss interviews diverse candidates -- a white woman, a south Asian man and a Black man -- to apply for a new position as head of AI, just to comply with "ESG" mandates, only to give the job to Tina the tech writer, who knows nothing about AI. 

In today's woke America, that's not satire, folks, that's just reporting. Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] wish Scott Adams continued success. Keep on truckin'! Honk honk!

Message from Walt

Ed. here (again). I've sent Walt another message asking when he's going to "return" to this space. In reply, I have received only this Dilbert comic strip.

It's hard for me to resist reposting Dilbert strips every day. I imagine if I'd did so I'd be hearing from attorneys for Andrews & McMeel right sharpish. If you like them, here's where you can subscribe, so you can get a new one in your in-box every day.

Footnote: Andrews & McMeel have for decades been syndicating comic strips and similar material, and publishing them in book form. One of the strips they handled -- not sure if they still do -- was (is?) Doonesbury. If you have a good collection of the Doonesbury books, look through it until you find the sequence in which Uncle Duke is recruited by Big Oil's Jim Andrews to take out Saddam Hussein. In one of those strips you'll find Andrews relaying orders from "Mr McMeel". Inside joke!

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"Hey campers!" Remember where you used to see that phrase? Why sure! It was in DOONESBURY, the long-running comic strip by G.B. (Garry) Trudeau, featuring Mike Doonesbury, Mark Slackmeyer, B.D., Zonker Harris, Uncle Duke [Remind you of anyone you know? Ed.] and Honey, Joanie Caucus, Rick Redfern, et al. 

Ah yes... a very funny strip, with lots of social and political satire which you had to laugh at, no matter which your side of the cultural divide. Many found it on the leading edge of social commentary. Now our dear sponsor (to whom be much thanks!) is offering 11 lots of vintage DOONESBURY paperbacks, on his Webstore. Like this:

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And this! The books are used, in good shape, and ridiculously cheap. One low starting price, $18.88, includes free shipping to USA and Canada (only). It's a great offer. If you decide to buy [How can you resist? Ed.], tell `em Walt sent ya!

If you love(d) PEANUTS, check this out!

Hey kids! Do you remember the old daze, when Charles M. Schulz's PEANUTS comic strip was a must-read for all the gangs down at the sodium shop, and their mommies and workadaddies? Many found it on the leading edge of social commentary. Why, those kids thought and talked just like adults!

Ah yes. Then along came Vietnam and the worst of the hippy-dippy 60s. (The exact date on which the Golden Age of America turned to excrement was 9 February 1964. You can look it up.) Doonesbury appeared, then Bloom County, and suddenly PEANUTS was uncool. Not as bad as Family Circus, but still somehow tone-deaf to what was going on in the real America.  

Still, there are many of us (I include myself) who look back on PEANUTS and the times it represented with affection. Life was simpler and better then. If you are one of those who yearn for the good ole daze, and regret that you threw out your PEANUTS books, our dear sponsor has just put a couple of dozen in his online store. Click here to have a look.

The books are used, in good shape, and ridiculously cheap. If you decide to buy, tell `em Walt sent ya!

Is nothing sacred to the gay lobby?

A reader has taken issue with Walt's use of the term "gay lobby". Do I really believe, (s)he asks, that there's a homosexual conspiracy to infiltrate positions of power and influence? Well, just as there are some who believe that Jews control banking and finance, so there are some who believe that homosexuals run the worlds of fashion and entertainment.

Have a look at Fashion TV and tell me that those clothes aren't designed by people who hate women. Or want women to look like 13-year-old boys!

As for entertainment, one has only to note the number of openly gay characters who appear in American TV sitcoms and soap operas. Four characters in the Simpsons appear to be, or have declared themselves, part of "the LGBT community". So what? It's all part of an orchestrated campaign (if not a conspiracy) to make being queer seem "normal". That's what!

And of course there was Brokeback Mountain. Hey, there's two nice guys who just happen to love each other and like to spend time doing things together...manly things like riding and camping...so there's nothing wrong with them, right? They don't have those little toothbrush mustaches and do disgusting things in bath-houses, do they?

(Mrs. Walt, having led a sheltered life, asked me what they do do. If she'd gone to school in a place where they have modern sex education she wouldn't have had to ask!)

And then there's comic books. Are you ready for this? Remember Archie? Well, in No. 202 of Archie Comics, coming to your newsstand in September, a new character moves to Riverdale. His name is Kevin Keller and he's a hunk! And guess what, girls? He's gay!

Says Jon Goldwater, CEO of Archie Comics Publications, "We want to make Archie Comics move forward and make it fun and inclusive." Ah yes, good normal fun. "He’ll definitely be part of the gang," he said. And at some point, he added, Kevin will "probably" have a "romance". Progressive parents will doubtless want to snap up that issue so they can show it to their kids!

“We pride ourselves on being a mirror to society, especially youth," Goldwater continued. "The kids in our book are in high school and we want to reflect everything that’s going on in their world from social interaction, to fashion, to friends." Fashion...social interaction...homosexuality... if you're not into all that, hey, you're just not cool...like Archie and his friends.

Footnote: If you can't remember which Simpsons character came out of the closet, e-mail walt.whiteman@yahoo.com and I'll tell you.