The cartoonist, who launched “Dilbert” in 1989, also penned novellas and nonfiction.

Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, dies at 68

The cartoonist, who launched "Dilbert" in 1989, also penned novellas and nonfiction.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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on January 13, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

Scott Adams in Pleasanton, Calif., on Jan. 6, 2014. Credit:

Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty

Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created *Dilbert*, has died. He was 68.

The humorist, who satirized office culture in his long-running comic strip, died Jan. 13 following a battle with prostate cancer. His ex-wife, Shelly Miles, announced the news on Tuesday morning in a livestream on the cartoonist's web show *Real Coffee With Scott Adams*.

Scott Adams in Pleasanton, Calif., on Jan. 6, 2014.

Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty

Adams, who also wrote novellas and nonfiction, announced his diagnosis in May. In November, he posted a public plea to President Trump asking for access to Pluvicto, a drug that he claimed his insurance provider "dropped the ball in scheduling." Following communications from Donald Trump Jr. and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president said he was "On it!" on social media, and the next day, the cartoonist said that he had scheduled a Pluvicto treatment.

However, in December, Adams said that the Pluvicto treatment would be postponed because he needed radiation treatment. "I don't know if I will ever get the Pluvicto or not," he said in a livestream. "If I don't, I will be unhappy." He said that he was paralyzed from the waist down later in December.

Born in 1957 in Windham, N.Y., Adams studied economics at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. After working various office jobs, Adams created *Dilbert* in 1989, satirizing white collar work in what became one of the defining comic strips of the 1990s. The strip launched a short-lived animated series, a computer game, and dozens of compilation books.

*Dilbert* was eventually dropped from numerous publications in 2023 after Adams went on a rant that called Black people a "hate group" and advised white people to "get the f--- away" from Black people.

Adams' political analysis on his blog and on *Real Coffee* gained widespread attention in the 2010s, and the cartoonist correctly predicted that Trump would win the 2016 presidential election.

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Adams also published a pair of sci-fi novellas, 2001's *God's Debris* and 2004's *The Religion War*, which saw the author foray into philosophical musings. He went on to publish five nonfiction books: 2007's *Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!* (which was sourced from over 150 of his blog posts),* *2013's *How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big*, 2017's *Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter*, 2019's *Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America*, and 2023's *Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success*.

In Tuesday's livestream, Miles read a final statement that Adams wrote on Jan. 1 that reflected on his life and career.

"For the first part of my life, I was focused on making myself a worthy husband and parent as a way to find meaning," Adams wrote. "That worked, but marriages don't always last forever, and mine eventually ended in a highly amicable way. I'm grateful for those years and for the people I came to call my family."

Scott Adams in San Francisco on Aug. 28, 2001.

Bob Riha, Jr./Getty

Adams said that after his eight-year marriage to Miles ended in 2014, he redirected his focus, which led to the launch of *Real Coffee* shortly thereafter.

"I donated myself to the world, literally speaking the words out loud in my otherwise silent home," he wrote. "From that point on, I looked for ways I could add the most to people's life, one way or another. That marked the start of my evolution from *Dilbert* cartoonist to an author of what I hoped would be useful books. By then, I believe I'd had enough life lessons that I could start passing them on. I continued making *Dilbert* comics, of course. As luck would have it, I'm a good writer."

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Adams described *How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big* as "a huge success, often imitated," noting that "I still hear every day how much the book changed lives." He also said that *Win Bigly* "trained an army of citizens how to be more persuasive," and that *Loserthink* "tried to teach people how to think better, especially if they were displaying their thinking on social media," though he said "that one didn't put much of a dent in the universe."

The writer also said that *Reframe Your Brain* "taught readers how to program their own thoughts to make their personal and professional lives better," and was proud that *Real Coffee* "ended up helping lots of lonely people find a community that made them less lonely."

Adams' statement also included a moment of religious conviction. "Many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go," he wrote. "I'm not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks so attractive to me, so here I go. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, and look forward to spending an eternity with Him."

He continued, "The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won't need any more convincing than that. I hope I'm still qualified for entry."**

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