Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons

It is almost with a sense of guilt that I award this strip a grade as high as 4.5 stars. After all, the characters are almost without redeeming quality, a sense of hopelessness and resignation pervading their empty lives, and the artwork is hardly superior to stick figures. But this comic, centering around what is wrong in American business and society, has become almost an icon over the years, a symbol for the folly of the American executive and the powerlessness of his employees. It is consistently funny, often clever, frequently hilarious, and has become one of my favorite strips. Also, its longevity and consistency are awe-inspiring.

Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons contains strips from the beginning of Dilbert's run as a comic through its first six months. Although a handful of the strips in this volume show Dilbert at the workplace, most of the comic is centered on the interaction between Dilbert and Dogbert as Dilbert faces the world as a socially inept technology obsessed engineer. While the strips lampoon Dilbert's nerdiness and Dogbert's megalomania, the bitter and incisive workplace satire that would come to characterize the strip in later years is almost completely absent.

Because the strip only touches on Dilbert's workplace in passing, many of the characters that are now familiar to fans of the strip are absent from this volume. There is no show more pointed haired boss, no Wally, no Alice, and no Asok. The strips do introduce Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light and ruler of Heck, as well as Bob and Dawn, the dinosaurs who were hiding behind Dilbert's couch. As the strips mainly take place in Dilbert's home, they generally revolve around Dilbert's troubles dating women, his bizarre and often dangerous inventions, and Dogbert's undisguised contempt for him.

Although the Dilbert strip didn't really come into its own until the workplace humor took center stage, this book remains quite good. As the book deals so heavily with Dilbert's personality and his interactions with Dogbert, the strips provide a level of character development for the two of them that many of the later strips lack, as the later strips simply assume one is already familiar with their personal foibles. Though not quite as good as later Dilbert books, even a book that is mediocre by Dilbert standards is really enjoyable, and thus this book gets a strong recommendation.

This review has also been posted to my blog Dreaming About Other Worlds. show less

Early Dilbert: This is the first compilation of Dilbert comics, featuring Dilbert comic strips from the late 80's. Most of the humor is at home -- away from the office and features Dilbert with Dogbert. No Pointy Hair Boss, Wally, Alice, etc.. So, despite its title, there is very little office satire (my Dilbert preference). At 112 pages with typically 3 comic strips per page, there are plenty of laughs. The comics featuring Phil the Ruler of Heck are hillarious.

Scott Adams does it again with another batch of cartoons lampooning the Corporate Culture.

Very funny and nice to see the beginnings of "Dilbert".

Very funny and nice to see the beginnings of "Dilbert".

Very funny and nice to see the beginnings of "Dilbert".