Deja Comic

Yes, today’s Dilbert comic (Saturday) is a repeat. Here’s the scoop.

I submit my comics a month or so in advance, then forget about them. Yesterday I got a call from my syndication company, United Media, alerting me that the comic scheduled for today makes a casual reference to serial killing.

Obviously this is exceptionally bad timing. The average reader doesn’t know how far in advance the comics are submitted, and it would look cruel, possibly intentional, given recent events.

One option was to alert client newspapers and give them the option of running the comic or replacing it with a repeat. I decided to go further and ask all of the newspapers to run the repeat. Some papers did not get enough notice to make the change. Comics are sometimes typeset in advance, depending on what technology the newspaper company uses. So I’m in for a bumpy ride today. Wish me luck.

I apologize for any bad feelings the comic might cause for anyone who sees it.

Comments

[Scott]

In regards to a previous comment concerning gun control. I refer you to the following article...

25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA'

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55288

I think Scott's comment holds true...

Concerning your previous blog on outsourcing the Govn't I refer you to another Atlanta suburb which has all ready done so. They have hired a private company to come in and run the town as a business. The locals have the right to hire and fire this company and should they not produce to the citizens standards. I think it's a great idea and should be implemented in other cities.

I guess those Georgians have got it right on a couple of occassions!

[Kat in GA]

Ooh, good catch on United Media's part, very classy and good move on your part. Well done. :-) I never knew how far in advance comic strips are submitted... that's a good little factoid to know & I'll file it away for future rememberance. ;)

[Twiddely Man]

This reminds me of the nun comic that you accidentaly aired right after Mother Theresa's death, where pointy haired boss is saved from a plane crash because there are a lot of nuns for padding.

[Crimson_Sky]

That was really considerate of you!

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate timing of it though. I hope everything works out and noone takes it wrong, for those who do see it. I probably wouldn't have even thought twice, but it helps that I'm aware they're made in advance too.

Good luck!

Blessings and Love,
Sarah

[synonymous]

That's a load of poop. It was a mass murder school shooting, not serial killing. It was definately NOT serial killing. Serial killers involve stalking, murders over a long period of time. And I'm not splitting hairs. Besdies with all the extremely depressing news lately, at one point I felt desparate to turn off the TV and get a genuine laugh. Laughter is therapeutic. The only thing I found was someone making fun of the media's handling of it, which though it was hilarious, it was still a bit tangential.

[daniel daniel]

Is there some reason that there isn't a link to the blog from the dilbert.com page any more?

[kaiserin]

in your next comic strip, you can talk about and perhaps help me understand why people in america are still advocating gun ownership?

[If everyone has guns, it's a bad idea to start firing yours in their direction. -- Scott]

[Arne]

Ironic that you don't have to be "sensitive" about thousands of Iraqis dying eh?

[Joe]

In your next post could you show us the comic that was planned to air but didn't, I am curious.

[cheetch5]

i think it's a moat point. wet and defensive. opinions on what bad taste is rests with each person,but it was right to not run the 'toon. i cannot imagine what it would be like to outlive your child,and reading a joke about it so soon after their death would've made things worse for those parents. the papers who did run it saying it was too late or whatever should flail themselves with a running chain saw.

[james]

i am sure alot of readers dont care, but the point is alot of people lost loved ones recently and if this strip even added a little more grief to one of them, then it should be pulled. Have some respect. People die every day, but its not every day a killer goes into a school and kills 32 people.

[Aditya Simha]

Scott, I would really like to see that strip. People should understand that you're not really cashing in on the recent tragedy, and in any case the only way by which one can heal from a tragic event is to laugh a little. I think you took a really empathic step, but still feel that maybe you should have allowed the strip to be published (with a note explaining that the thing wasn't intentionally planned)!

[daloon]

Wow, it's considerate, and so on. And your diliberatly going for not pissing people off... I see a new trend here. Best of luck with the hate mail storm though.

[Sonya]

Can you post it? Pretty please? I can't really judge how bumpy your ride will be until I see how casual the reference is.

[Michal Malkowski]

Whoah! I have to say - I am VERY impressed. Seeing what all medias did about it (eg. doing what that psycho intended them to do), one would rather expect you to be happy about all the free marketing fuss.

So, no matter if it was funny, or not - I think it's a good call. Political correctness issues aside.

[Arby]

Aw, don’t worry about the strip serial killer reference as most reasonably intelligent people will know the circumstances. It is not up there with “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?” Everyone knows you reach out for incongruous metaphors and analogies that seem absurd to make your points and they are usually very funny. You have a vivid imagination but there was no intent on your part to be insensitive in this case. I just wish the media would get over the killer, his pictures and perverted, self-aggrandizing story and focus more on the victim’s families to help them recover. The miscreatant should be drawn and quartered, turned into sausage and fed to the worms in an unmarked grave. If he had lived they would have used the abused-childhood/Twinkie/insane defense. Saved us a lot of money he did by offing himself. Alleged murderer my ass!

[ja_f-er]

You are a creationist idealwad who believes in majic, you imaginary delta-theta-alpha wavehead! You're nothing but a figment of my avatarian hallucination, who walks around all day in a probability region which is bounded by an enegy potential well that is stuck to the crazy spectrum of the back of my mind's eye! I don't believe in you, I'm an athiest! (not addressed to Scott Adams, of course, but to his imaginary friend from above)

[Juan Romero]

Probably a different kind of question, but how do you choose which comic to run as a repeat?

I suppose it has to be good enough not to generate complaints (if it ever did, do comics generate complaints?), but not so good as to be memorable.

[justin]

well of course it's a terrible thing what happened. but why is it that so much media hype goes to a concentration of killing? according my cursory research there were over 10,000 murders in the US last year. does the fact that .3% of them happened in one spot make the individual losses at VT any more terrible than a case where only one person was killed in one spot? how many friends and families of victims of single murders never get any press? strikes me as hypocritical to act like these murders are more important than all the others. also technically speaking this event was not serial murder in the usual sense. this was a rampage.

[Guillermo Silva]

Mmm... Now I want to see today's comic!!

[Craig "Fuzzy" Conner]

>> I decided to go further and ask all of the newspapers
>> to run the repeat.

It's obvious that, given the schedule thrust upon you, you've done all you could do in the interests of good timing and good taste.

>> So I’m in for a bumpy ride today. Wish me luck.

Those who may be so easily offended may also be more appreciative of your effort to change the strip.

I was not offended by the strip, and I didn't equate it with the recent murders at VT.

Good luck.

[Bob]

Well, the Va Tech shooter really doesn't qualify as a serial killer does he? Sure he's a little nuts, but I think the "serial" in "serial killer" implies some sort of continuity to the killing over some period of time. The Va Tech shooter was merely having a bad day. Sure, it was pre-meditated, but I mean, the guy was nuts... he had some ongoing issues that were pretty obvious... how could he *not* have known it was coming? He might have been planning it for months with that exact date circled on his calender, or maybe not. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be until next monday or maybe it was all still some sort of vague plan, when one day, this guy wakes up, rolls over, and finds himself eye to eye with a jovial squirrel on the other side of the window. "That squirrel is laughing at me!!! That's it! I've had it! I'll show them! I'll show you all!!!" So then this guy goes and shoots a bunch of people, and then he shoots himself. Real serial killers don't shoot themselves, do they? Another thing - the "killer" in "serial killer" is really meant as a euphemism. Serial killers don't just kill people, they stalk, and then they use a chain saw or something horrible like that, and then they dismember too. It's always good measure to store limbs or heads in the fridge, and if you're a really busy serial killer, you need a spare deep freezer. This Va. Tech killer was just that - a killer, nothing more - just a killer. It's certainly not nice or anything, what he did, and it's certainly totally psychotic, but, not so much on an inter-personal-cut-your-guts-out-with-a-chain-saw-level of psychosis that you'd expect a serial-killer to have with his victims. It was more of a George-Bush-sending-kids-to-their-graves sort of psychosis -- All done via remote control with the push of a button or the stroke of a pen... click click click... and done with some irrational argument to justify it to himself and to the world. A serial killer is supposed to be the ultimate embodiment of irredeemable evil. Someone with no more empathy or compassion or feeling left. Serial killers don't need arguments and justifications. Anyway, I'm not drawing a direct analogy between Bush and the Va. Tech shooter. That would be cheap and disgusting. I'm merely pointing out that they both are responsible for killing lots of people via remote-control, and I don't think that you can call either of them serial killers - they're just both insane, and insane in completely different ways at that... but what they both maybe share as a common root-level thread to their insanity is this American kill-happy John Wayne culture where the individual's ego and patriotism can get way out of hand and way irrational. Screw background checks for gun ownership... I don't see guns as being the problem here. There ought to be background checks for TV ownership.

[jerry w]

"One option was to alert client newspapers and give them the option of running the comic or replacing it with a repeat. "

You could also write up another strip idea
where you regain total control of your strip
from the mob... umm, better make that the
syndicate. Dang, that still sound like they're
Mafioso. Anyway, do something like that and
we can check back in 30 days to see if it was
meant to happen.

Maybe introduce a new character who can see
the future: Nostobertus

Another option? Tell them to F.O., eh!
(That is, if they're in Canada)

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[Rob Henry]

No problem, Scott. Your strip always touches on hot topics of current events. No way could you have saw this one coming...well, not when it did anyway.

[Jason]

I saw the comic. Shame people are so sensitive you had to not use it, it's pretty funny in this storyline.