“Dilbert” author Scott Adams, who has been drawing the comic since 1989, said the strip that pokes fun at office culture was wiped from nearly 77 newspapers.
Lee Enterprises, which owns nearly 100 newspaper companies in the US, terminated the contract with “Dilbert” for unknown reasons, reports Fox News.
“It was part of a larger overhaul, I believe, of comics, but why they decided what was in and what was out, that’s not known to anybody except them, I guess,” said Adams, who noted it coincidentally happened after he incorporated “wokeness” into the stories.
The artist said several other comic strips were also canceled by Lee Enterprises but each decision was made individually.
The Post reached out to Lee Enterprises and Adams for comment.
“Dilbert” has appeared in thousands of newspapers across the US and has spawned several Dilbert-themed calendars, books and even a TV show that ran from 1999 to 2000.
Recently, Adams started poking fun at the ESG movement (also known as the environmental, social and governance movement), Fox reported, and, in the most recent strip from Tuesday, he introduced a new character named Dave who is black but identifies as white.
“All of the wokeness and anything that permeated from ESG … so that stuff made its way into the business world, and then it became proper content for ‘Dilbert,’ ” Adams said.
“Dilbert” author Scott Adams has been authoring the comic since 1989.San Francisco Chronicle via Gett
According to Adams, the loss of his cartoon has been a massive financial setback.Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Adams said he has no idea why his comic was canceled.Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images“The problem is that people see that even though it’s a workplace-related joke, but it’s more about how they implement it.”
According to Adams, several newspapers complained to him that their readers were not happy with the content, but he was not sure if that had anything to do with the removal of “Dilbert.”
“What I do is I talk about how the employees handle the situation. It’s not about the goal of it. But that’s enough to make people think that I must be taking sides politically,” exclaimed Adams.
The cancellation of his comic has also dealt him a serious financial blow.
“It’s substantial,” Adams said.
