Scott Adams, the American cartoonist who created the workplace satire Dilbert and later became a divisive conservative commentator has died aged 68.
Adams built a career out of skewering corporate life, turning office jargon, pointless meetings and bad management into a global brand that resonated through the 1990s and beyond.
Dilbert first ran in 1989 and at its peak appeared in thousands of newspapers worldwide, spawning books, merchandise and a television adaptation.
In recent years, his public profile shifted from cartoonist to political pundit with daily livestreams and commentary that attracted a loyal following as well as sustained criticism.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Shelly Miles and linked it to a battle with metastatic prostate cancer.
Adams had spoken publicly about his health including revealing he had advanced prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
The illness and his attempts to secure treatment, also pulled him into a policy flashpoint familiar well beyond the United States, access to high cost medicines, the role of insurers and how quickly patients can be scheduled for specialist therapies.
Adams had appealed to former US president Donald Trump for help in speeding access to Pluvicto, a targeted radiotherapy drug used in some cases of advanced prostate cancer and that Trump acknowledged the request and later mourned him publicly.
The arc of Adams career also became a case study in how quickly a mass media product can be upended by online speech.
In 2023, Dilbert was dropped by many newspapers after Adams made widely condemned racist remarks in an online video including urging white people to avoid Black Americans.
The fallout was swift with publishers and syndication partners cutting ties as the strip’s distribution collapsed.
Adams supporters argued he was being punished for provocative political commentary while critics said the break was overdue and reflected a basic commercial reality for publishers reliant on reader trust and advertising.
In any case, his passing closes a chapter on a person who, after defining a particular type of office humour for a while spent his later years at the epicentre of America’s cultural conflicts.
