Collector's Corner

This page lists some non-book Dilbert strips. If you know of others, please let me know and I will add them here.

If you buy the books listed in the books page, you will still be missing these strips:

• Office Party 1991-03-31 If you look in the book Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy, notice that a Sunday strip should appear between pages 108 and 109. They missed this strip, for whatever reason.
• April Fools 1997-04-01 This April Fools day strip was drawn by Bil Keane of The Family Circus fame and appears in Journey to Cubeville. Scott Adams drew the April Fools panel for The Family Circus that day and presumably appears in some The Family Circus collection. Does anyone know which one? For the completist, there's also a Bil Keane 1997-04-02 follow-up to the Scott Adams' The Family Circus April Fools panel.

Some alternative strips have been made available to newspapers.

• Mark, I want you to... 1994-08-01 This was sent out in case newspaper editors objected to the phrase Uranus-Hertz. The strip containing Uranus-Hertz was published in the book Fugitive from the Cubicle Police. The alternative strip, which was completely different, was published in a desktop calendar. Does anyone know which one? The alternative strip contained the Boss starting to ask Mark to do something, and Mark over-reacts.
• Corn Starch 1995-05-04. (or maybe 2000-06-03. The date in the URL was 1995-05-04 and the date written in the strip is 2000-06-03) A newspaper web site was reprinting older strips and got tangled up in the dates. So United Media made an unpublished strip available to fill in a gap. It shows Dogbert sitting on a pillow, contemplating corn starch, and wondering why people would iron corn. (no longer online)
• It Might Have Sucked 1997-07-17 There were two versions published in newspapers that day depending on the editor's choice. One version contained the word sucked. The alternative version replaced that with been useless.
• Breeding Owls 2005-05-17 A version with the final panel covered with a sign that said it was "hilarious but offensive" and the reader could go to dilbert.com to see it. Some papers published the uncensored version.
• Porpoise Attacking a Shark 2005-09-06 The tame version showed a lawyer's body with a large, porpoise-snout-sized hole in the middle of his back. The offensive version showed the lawyer's body with the porpoise still lodged up his rear end. Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, page 11.

In addition, there have been a few "web-only" versions published by a former version of the Dilbert Zone:

• The O-Word 1997-08-18 This strip shows Dilbert recruiting students. The strip had Dilbert misleadingly comparing meetings to parties: "I'm not allowed to say the O-word" appeared in the newspaper version. The web version had orgy instead of the O-word.
• Still Beating Heart 1998-09-05 The published version has three panels and the web version had a fourth panel. The extra panel showed Alice being violent.
• Special Olympics 1999-01-06 The web version contained a phrase that was considered "in poor taste" and it was changed for the newspaper version.
• Face Time 2000-02-09 The newspaper version shows a VP making faces at Dilbert. The web-only version replaces the last panel with Dilbert watching another employee kissing the VP on the ass. "He's still giving face time to someone else."
• Brand Awareness 2000-08-06 The web version showed Wally's butt cleavage as he was being branded. The newspaper version had that censored and just left his butt smooth.
• Crack Team 2001-04-03 Unlike other web-only versions, this one is completely different from the newspaper version. In this version, the Boss asks Dilbert to put together a crack team and the joke is that a team member shows some butt cleavage.
• Wally Surviving in Jail 2001-05-09 The newspaper version has Wally trying to impress his cellmate by wanting to get temporary tattoos at the gift shop. The web version replaced the last panel with Wally asking his cellmate to close his eyes and whistle while Wally used the toilet.

Scott Adams has also published some web-only strips in his blog. They are not online anymore but most are in his book Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!

• Is that Donut Loaded? 2005-08-04 Scott shows some early versions of the strip. The first version showed a police officer shooting his gun. Since there is a "rule" against guns firing in comics, the depiction of the shooting was replaced by the entire panel showing Bam, Bam in the second version. The final version reverted back to the original drawing except that the gun firing bullets was replaced by a donut firing some bullets. That, apparently, is OK. Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, pages 7 and 8
• Interviewing the Boss's Pet 2005-11-03 This one contains a reference to sexual harassment that's subtle enough for most people to miss ("now do the leg thing"). The published version replaced the last panel with the Boss saying something complimentary and mundane ("nice furrowing of the brows"). Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, page 20.
• When Life Gives You Lemons 2005-12-09 Scott published an version of this strip a few days early on his blog. The early version had the dialogue in the first panel intact, but the rest of the dialogue removed. Scott asked his blog readers to supply their own lines in the comments section and then quoted the ones he liked. This is a fore-runner of the Mashup section at the Dilbert site.
• Jet-Lagged Baby 2006-01-25 A baby in the office stares at a well-endowed woman presumably wanting to breast-feed. The tamer, newspaper-published version had the dialogue "Hey, I just got a crazy idea." The original version, published on the internet comic web sites, contained "Less talking, more burping." Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, page 75.
• Porn is too Strong a Word 2006-03-05 Scott's editor objected to the use of the word porn ("There's too much porn on your hard drive") and so suggested smut to replace it. Scott published just the one panel containing the word in question, not the whole strip, on 2006-01-23.
• It Keeps Uranus Warm 2006-04-03 This one snuck by the censors but some newspapers' editors changed Uranus to Pluto. So Scott claims, tho' I haven't seen the changed one to verify.
• Asok's Butt 2006-06-24 The original drawing showed Asok's naked butt. The editors thought that too many people would complain so the comic was redrawn with underpants. The underpants showed the outline of Asok's buttocks, but no-one complained. Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, page 130.
• Where Marketing Data Comes From 2006-11-12 The original showed a marketing person with an ass for a head pulling a document out of his head. The published version had the ass on the top of his head covered by underpants and the document coming out through the waistband. Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!, page 265.

Mistakes:

• Bid Delivery 2003-08-19 Correct and "broken" versions of this strip were published that day. The Boss's line of dialogue in the first panel, missing from the broken version, is "I'll deliver it to them".

Other strips:

• Early Sketches (pre-1988) A selection of Scott's early drawings and jokes from before the submission package. They're reprinted in Dilbert 2.0.
• The Dawn of Dilbert (1988) The original 50 strips that Scott put together to sell to a syndicate. Most of the ideas in these have been re-used in newspaper strips. They're online at the Dilbert site About page. They're also reprinted in Dilbert 2.0.
• Dogbert Origin Strips (1997) The Dogbert origin strips are at These nine previously-unpublished strips show how Dogbert and Dilbert met and take the characters in another direction. Not published anywhere.
• Plop Spinoff (2001) This is not Dilbert, but Scott Adams experimented with a spin-off about a hairless Elbonian called Plop. It didn't go anywhere. There were 28 strips in total, and aren't online.
• How to Read a Book Quickly (2008) This is published on the Amazon website in conjunction with the publishing of the Dilbert 2.0 book.

Many of these have been published in the book Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!. Page numbers shown here refer to the USA hardcover version (the only one I know about).

Other alternative strips have been published in the book Dilbert 2.0. Page numbers here refer to the Canadian hardcover version (again, this is the only one I know about).

Do you know of any other strips that aren't collected in the books listed on the books page? If so, please drop me a line!