Scott Meyer

Scott Oscar Meyer (born May 11, 1971) is an American author, comedian, and artist, known for his webcomic Basic Instructions and his comic fantasy series Magic 2.0. Meyer initially began posting Basic Instructions on his LiveJournal account in 2003, and on its own website basicinstructions.net in 2006. Strips were posted three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each comic contained four panels in a grid, and each panel typically contains instructions as well as the standard comic drawings. In June 2015, Meyer announced that he would be stopping the production of Basic Instructions, and would start re-running older comics. On March 30, 2022, he posted a new, zombie-themed comic which teased his return and on April 1, 2022, he announced the comic's return and that it would update weekly. The instructions were based on a "how to" topic seemingly taken from everyday life, such as "How to Lie for Recreational Purposes" or "How to Win at Monopoly Without Losing a Friend", and then dealt with the subject in a frequently perverse or unexpected manner. The characters in the comic were Scott Meyer himself and representations of the people he interacted with on a daily basis, such as his wife, his boss, and his best friend. The author has stated in interviews that many of the characters were based on real people. Four books have been published, the first two by Dark Horse Comics, all containing compilations of strips with some new content, forewords written by the characters and commentary on the comics themselves. A page-a-day calendar featuring strips from the comic were printed from 2011 to 2014. In August 2008 Dilbert creator Scott Adams covered Basic Instructions on his blog, where he discussed his interactions with Meyer and advice he had given him on possible syndication.