April 9, 2009 If you're a modern office worker, the chances are you'll know Dilbert, the most photocopied, pinned-up, downloaded, faxed and e-mailed comic strip in the world. Many Dilbert readers, particularly those employed at large corporations, are convinced that Dilbert creator Scott Adams works at their company since he conveys corporate inanities so well in the ever-funny, ever-savage satire of life in the modern workplace. Indeed, in some newspapers, the strip runs in the business section rather than the funnies, reflecting its accurate portrayal of the realities of work life for 21st century cyberserfs. Dilbert turns 20 this month, and a book/online resource has been created to celebrate. Dilbert, we love you!
It is hard to believe that Dilbert, the comic strip character who embodies white-collar office micromanagement, is turning 20, but in that time the bespectacled, wry-humored little engineer has captured all too well the corporate culture that has come to symbolize the U.S. workplace and all its dysfunction. Indeed, Dilbert may be one of the most accurate reflections of workplace dysfunction in the eye of the digital revolution, given that his two decades span the emergence of corporate email, computing and … there's that word again, digital dysfunction.
Dilbert was the first syndicated comic strip to go online in 1995 and is the most widely read comic on the internet. In February, the strip’s dedicated website and home to Scott Adams’ blog, www.dilbert.com, received 1.5 million unique visitors and was one of the busiest of months in the site's history. One can see parallels between the recent meltdown in the corporate financial industry and the malfeasance, mismanagement and other themes explored in Dilbert. So how is it that we can laugh at the foibles in Dilbert's world, knowing our own workplaces may not be far removed from his?
“Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert,” an authoritative volume of 576 pages with over 2000 Dilbert cartoons (some never-before published), is annotated with commentary and reflections by Scott Adams and includes a DVD including all Dilbert cartoons from 1989 through 2008 (with a link enabling readers to download future Dilbert cartoons).
Dilbert is licensed and syndicated by United Media. United Media (UM) is a worldwide licensing and syndication company that focuses on building brand equity around a wide range of creative content.