Product Description: When it became syndicated in 1989, Dilbert struck a nerve with workers everywhere. Through its frames they saw life on the job as they knew it, with all the absurdity, craziness, and dry humor that underlies any living, breathing organization. The fact that the strip focused on a hapless engineer and his cynical dog just made it all the more funny.
Now work life seems downright unimaginable without Dilbert and Dogbert's take on everything from management ill-practices to nonperformance reviews. What Would Wally Do?, AMP's twenty-sixth Dilbert book, delivers that same combination of pain and humor that readers count on. This collection especially highlights Wally, Dilbert's colleague, fellow engineer, foil, and fool.
Wally's that short quirky guy with little hair, plenty of horn-rimmed frames, and almost zero work ethic. After all, who's got time for a job, thinks the self-proclaimed "Lord Wally the Puppet Master," when you're busy surviving the "Mobility Pool," turning your cubicle into a tourist attraction called "Sticky-Note City," and selecting a mail-order bride from Elbonia? Weasel-Boy makes a point of highlighting his poor performance and lack of respect . . .and usually gets another raise for his efforts. Such is life in Dilbert and Wally's world. Such are the laughs in What Would Wally Do?
Laziness is pretty funny Great book, very funny. Wally is my favorite Dilbert character. He's like Randy Moss (of the Raiders, not the one today) but with much less talent for his career. I enjoyed this one as much as any Dilbert book.
Disappointing - Scott Adams should be mad Dilbert is a great comic strip, and it's a fine idea to assemble a bunch of funny strips about Wally. I don't even mind that it's all recycled material.
But it's an insult to the reader to assemble the strips so badly. If there are two strips from the same sequence, why separate them by several pages? I'm taking this one back - it doesn't add anything new and it's edited badly.
A book about Wally or by Wally? I can't decide if the poor editing in this book is intended to be part of the humor or not. The "Wally Version 1.0" back story was entertaining and, as always, there were some laugh-out-loud strips in this book.
Unfortunately though, it seems that the publisher assigned some interns to pull out all the Dilbert strips they could find where Wally supplies the punch line and then put them in the book in no particular order. At first, it appears that the strips are being presented in the order they were written or published but that "theme" is not maintained. At one point, there are three strips on one page that are obviously part of a single narrative but the last strip on the page is the "setup" for the punchlines in the first two. This was only the most glaring example of the lack of effort put into this book. Several other related strips appear out of order (in at least one case, separated by about 1/3rd of the book). Other strips are presented without critical context (presumably because the contextual strips don't feature Wally?) so they lose a lot of their punch.
I laughed while reading the book but I couldn't help imagining the publisher was also laughing on his way to the bank with my money.
REVIEW I am a big fan of DILBERT, and I'm sure that you will think this book is hilarious. Wally is probably my favorite character, and Dilbert is my second. Office politics are so funny, and Scot Adams hits them on top of the head.
Almost too funny collection by Scott Adams I'm a fan of comics, but I'm very picky about which ones I choose to love. "Peanuts" will always be the standard, since I followed them since I was old enough to read. Of course, many other classics have hung around for decades, some, like Beetle Bailey, like seeing an old friend, and magnum puke affairs like "Family Circus", which is so square and traditional, you just know they're all neo-con evangelicals. No strip out there matches day to day the wit, sarcasm and accuracy of "Dilbert", Scott Adams' view of the workplace and all the idiocy that comes with it. "What Would Wally Do?" celebrates the worst worker in the world (although I know a few who could be serious contenders) or maybe the greatest work avoider of all time, depending on your point of view. Adams is always on the money when it comes to the stupidity of corporate America, and it's scary because in so many cases it's true, especially in the suck-up world of management, where snitching, butt kissing and treachery are more important for success than dependability, hard work or intelligence. Wally, Dilbert's co-worker, knows the system and how to beat it. All of the "Dilbert" books are brilliant and will make you laugh out loud and best of all, will assure all of us that in the world of the workplace, when it comes to dealing with morons and slackers, we are definitely not alone.
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