Scott Adam's Interview creator of Dilbert

I was very bored the other day and needed something to write about so i thought about how many great bloggers there were out there and thought hmmm why not interview one. So i googled the word "blog" and came across the Scott Adams Blog,
the creator of the comic Dilbert. Having been a massive fan of the
Dilbert comic strips i knew i had to get in touch. So i sent him a list
of questions and he wrote back providing me with a little biography to
boot. Have a read, these are his own words.

1 How did you think of creating Dilbert?

I
worked in corporate America for 16.5 years, first at Crocker Bank, then
at Pacific Bell. Most of those years I spent in engineering groups
surrounded by people who looked a lot like Dilbert.

2 When were you born?

6/8/57

3 If you have hobbies, what are they (not including Dilbert related things)?

I play tennis twice a week.

4 Why does Dilbert’s tie curve upward?

No
one really knows, including me. Dilbert started as a doodle before I
knew he would be famous. I don’t remember what I was thinking the day I
decided to curl his tie up.

5 Why was the Dilbert T.V. show canceled?

It
was on UPN, a network that few people watch. And because of some
management screw-ups between the first and second seasons the time slot
kept changing and we lost our viewers. We were also scheduled to follow
the worst TV show ever made: Shasta McNasty. On TV, your viewership is
75% determined by how many people watched the show before yours. That
killed us.

7 Why does Dilbert’s, Catbert’s, Dogbert’s, and Ratbert’s names end with "bert"?

Dilbert came first. Dogbert followed because I liked the sound of it. The rest were obvious. Even Bob the dinosaur is Robert.

8 About how many comic strips have appeared in newspapers?

365 Dilbert strips per year since April 1989. You do the math.

9 About how much do you get paid a day for comics in the papers?

That’s confidential information. But Dilbert runs in 2,000 papers, so it’s a lot.

10 Have you ever been an Engineer?

See my Biography, below.

BIOGRAPHY OF SCOTT ADAMS

Early Years

I
was born 6/8/57 and raised in Windham, New York, in the Catskill
mountains. I Graduated high-school as valedictorian because the other
39 people in my class couldn’t spell "valedictorian."

I moved to Northern California in 1979 after college and have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since.

Education

Hartwick College, Oneonta New York, BA in economics, 1979.
University of California at Berkeley, MBA, 1986.
Certified Hypnotist, Clement School of Hypnosis, San Francisco, 1981.

Day Jobs

I worked at Crocker National Bank, San Francisco, 1979 to 1986, in a
number of humiliating and low paying jobs: teller (robbed
twice at gunpoint), computer programmer, financial analyst, product
manager, and commercial lender.

I
moved from the bank to Pacific Bell, San Ramon, California, and worked
there from 1986 through June 1995. I worked in a number of jobs that
defy description but all involve technology and finances. The most
recent job was is in a laboratory, finding ways to use digital phone
lines and also running the company’s BBS. My business card said
"engineer" but I’m not an engineer by training.

From 1989 until 1995 I worked my day job while doing the Dilbert comic strip mornings, evenings and weekends.

How I Became a Syndicated Cartoonist

Dilbert is a composite of my co-workers over the years. He emerged
as the main character of my doodles. I started using him
for business presentations and got great responses. A co-worker
suggested I name the character Dilbert. Dogbert was created so Dilbert would have someone to talk to.

On the advice of a kind cartoonist I bought a book called "1988
Artist Markets" and followed the instructions on how to get
syndicated. I drew fifty sample strips and mailed copies to the
major cartoon syndicates. United Media called a few weeks later and
offered a contract. I accepted.

Dilbert was launched in 1989 after several months of further
developing the strip. That was my first cartooning for profit.

Dilbert Books

I
have written four original best selling books: The Dilbert Principle,
Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook, The Dilbert Future, and
The Joy of Work. The first two were #1 New York Times Best Sellers.

Including strip reprint books there are 35 Dilbert books with over 10 million copies in print.

Newspapers

Dilbert appears in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries, making it one of the most successful syndicated comic strips in history.

Internet

The Dilbert web site, dilbert.com, was the first syndicated comic strip to go online in 1995 and is the most widely read syndicated comic on the internet.

I am co-owner of Stacey’s CafeÂ©, a restaurant in downtown Pleasanton, California, and Stacey’s at Waterford, in Dublin CA. See staceyscafe.com for details.

Key Events

1989 – Published Dilbert in newspapers

1995 – Launched the Dilbert web site, Dilbert.com

1996 – Published The Dilbert Principle and Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook that both became #1 NY Times bestsellers

1997 – Won the Reuben Award, cartooning’s highest honor

1999-2000 – The Dilbert animated TV show ran on UPN

2001 – Published my first non-Dilbert eBook titled God’s Debris