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.