‘Dilbert’ Cartoonist Dies at 68

Scott Adams, the controversial and influential cartoonist behind the wildly popular office satire Dilbert, has died at the age of 68.

The death of Scott Adams was announced Tuesday by his first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, who shared the news both on X and on Adams’ longtime YouTube channel, Coffee with Scott Adams.

“He’s not with us anymore,” Miles said solemnly before reading a final message Adams had prepared for his audience.

“If you are reading this, things did not go well for me,” the message began.

Adams had publicly revealed in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and continued updating followers about his health through social media and his video podcast as his condition progressed.

In his final note, after reflecting on major moments from his life and career, Adams wrote, “I had an amazing life.” He closed with a message to fans that quickly spread online: “Be useful, and please know I loved you all to the very end.”

Born June 8, 1957, in Windham, New York, Adams didn’t initially set out to become a cartoonist. He worked for Pacific Bell before deciding corporate life wasn’t for him — ironically, the very world that would later fuel his most famous creation.

“I think I’m going to look around, see if there is something else I can do that doesn’t require having a boss,” Adams once said in an interview, explaining how the idea for cartooning took hold.

That gamble paid off. Dilbert first appeared in newspapers in 1989 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon, skewering cubicle culture, clueless management, and workplace absurdity. At its peak, the strip ran in thousands of papers worldwide and earned Adams the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award in 1997.

The franchise later expanded into books, merchandise, and an animated television series that aired for two seasons starting in 1999.

In recent years, Adams remained a polarizing public figure, but there’s no denying the massive imprint Dilbert left on workplace humor for an entire generation.

As news of his death spreads, fans are revisiting his work — and his final words — one last time.