only referenced as this in the TV series episode "Hunger". Dilbert's father never appears in the strip, as he has spent his life since Christmas 1992 at a 24-hour "All-You-Can-Eat" restaurant in the mall. As Dilbert's biggest social difficulty is getting a date, creator Scott Adams published a phone number for interested parties to call, which was still connected to an answering machine in March, 1993. Real world impact In January 1997, Dilbert appeared on the covers of five national magazines in one week. In 2000, the Montreal Gazette noted that his visage appeared in "a wide assortment of merchandising tie-ins" such as a Visa credit card and a flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream (Dilbert's World Totally Nuts). Death and resurrection In a story arc spanning from September 17 to October 9, 1990, Dilbert is killed by a wild deer and Mother Nature (although he is seen alive in an unrelated September 23, 1990 strip), but is cloned back to life by the garbage man on October 5, 1990. References External links Comics characters introduced in 1989 Dilbert characters Fictional businesspeople Fictional characters from Massachusetts Fictional engineers Male characters in animation Male characters in comics Animated human characters