Adrienne Roy

Passings | Prolific colorist Adrienne Roy, who was a fixture of DC Comics for more than two decades, passed away on Dec. 14 following a year-long battle with cancer. She was 57. Although Roy’s work appeared in countless DC titles, from Green Lantern and Superman to Warlord and Wonder Woman, she’s best known for her extensive runs on Batman, Detective Comics and The New Teen Titans. Mark Evanier notes that “Her long tenure on Batman (more than 600 issues of various comics featuring the character) meant that her credit appeared on more tales of the Caped Crusader than anyone else except for Bob Kane.” CBGExtra posts an obituary written by her husband Anthony Tollin. [News from ME]

Publishing | Rich Johnston reports on rumored contract changes at DC Comics that would affect all new creator-owned titles in the DC Universe and Vertigo imprints. [Bleeding Cool]

Publishing | Storm Lion, the Singapore-based multimedia studio behind the 2008 Radical Publishing miniseries Freedom Formula, has closed on the heels the summer layoff of 30 employees in Singapore and Los Angeles. The closing leaves a planned movie adaptation, to be produced by Bryan Singer, “in limbo.” [The Straits Times]

Josh Blaylock

Publishing | Josh Blaylock, founder of Devil’s Due Publishing, frets that sudden cover-price cuts by DC and Marvel will lead to a “direct market massacre” in February: “Even in the best of times the holiday spending craze is over, everyone has spent their post-X-mas, January gift money, and the lull begins, and this will likely be one of the flattest X-Mas seasons in memory. This year, as our currency buys less and less essentials (I’m talking food and clothing, not your essential weekly publications), February is already poised to be tougher than ever, but it’s also running parallel with the forced 25% drop in sales from the majority of DC and Marvel titles. It’s an open wound plus salt.” [JoshBlaylock.com, via The Beat]

Retailing | Frances Dinkelspiel follows up on last week’s report about the imminent closing of legendary Berkeley, Calif., store Comic Relief. The article mentions that two employees have been laid off, but that the family of founder Rory Root is apparently talking to a potential buyer. Rich Johnston and Heidi MacDonald have commentary. [Berkeleyside]

Retailing | Drew Sullivan, owner of Ash Avenue Comics and Books in Tempe, Ariz., said his store had an exceptional November, thanks in large part to brisk sales of The Walking Dead, triggered by the popularity of the AMC television adaptation: “That comic book is one of our biggest sellers right now. We can’t keep it stocked. [...] It’s basically introducing new customers to the world of comics.” [East Valley Tribune]

Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson considers the pitfalls of comics age ratings. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Sleeper: Season One

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon pens a eulogy for WildStorm, complete with a list of favorite titles. [The Comics Reporter]

Conventions | Jayson Peters previews Amazing Arizona Comic Convention, which will hold is debut event Jan. 8-9 at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Ariz. Guests will include Robert Kirkman, Rob Liefeld, Jeph Loeb, Joe Benitez, John Layman, Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker, and cast members from The Walking Dead. [East Valley Tribune]

Creators | Dean Haspiel posts his comic-strip tribute to Harvey Pekar that appears in the year-end issue of Entertainment Weekly. [LiveJournal]

Creators | Amy Mebberson talks about kids’ comics and BOOM! Studios’ Muppet Show titles. [TFAW.com]

Best of the year | David Allen Jones compiles his favorite comics of 2010, including Scalped, The Sixth Gun and Empowered. [Popdose]

Best of the year | Larry Cruz looks at the “Webcomic Moments of 2010.” [The Webcomic Overlook]

Arcana Studio

You expect a press release to inflate a comic’s importance or puff up a creator’s track record. After all, the publisher is trying to convince the media that its announcement has news value. But every once in a while a release overreaches. Just a little.

Take, for instance, this one from Arcana Studio announcing the acquisition of a handful of Devil’s Due Publishing titles that I’ve never heard of. The first half of the release is standard fare, briefly describing the comics and hyping the performance of Arcana (“the company has been growing in leaps and bounds”). But then we get to this paragraph:

Arcana’s graphic novels and intellectual properties have grown in the last two years to be as wide a library of characters as Marvel’s. Marvel was acquired by Disney for $4 Billion, and is the second major comic library to be acquired by a Hollywood studio. DC Comics, which is owned by Warner Bros., recently announced a newly-revamped business model, focusing on reaching deeper into DC’s catalog of characters.

It’s investor (or acquisition) bait, to be sure. But, hey, Arcana isn’t the first small publisher — or, rather, transmedia entertainment company — to dangle the $4-billion Marvel purchase in hopes of snagging a big fish. (However, it may the only one to date to use the DC Entertainment restructuring as back-up.) I’m not dwelling on that, though.

No, I was tripped up by that first sentence, which claims “Arcana’s graphic novels and intellectual properties have grown in the last two years to be as wide a library of characters as Marvel’s.” This is the same studio that, just a few paragraphs earlier, boasted “over 100 graphic novels.”

Now, I’ve written before about the “proven library” of Marvel characters, which jumped from 4,000 or so to “over 5,000″ to 7,000 in the course of a few months. I have no idea how the House of Ideas came up with those numbers, but I imagine it involved counting each and every Morlock, Daily Bugle employee and Hydra member (“Hail, Hydra!”). Still, Marvel has had 70 years to accumulate those characters, so I’m willing to believe 7,000 characters is possible (“proven” characters is another matter). However, Arcana has been around for six years.

Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to call shenanigans: The press release doesn’t come out and say Arcana has as many characters as Marvel; it states that Arcana has “as wide a library of characters as Marvel’s.” Which means … something about genre diversity? A crack at Blob and Big Bertha? All right, I have no idea.

Comic-Con

Comic-Con International has released the programming schedule for Thursday, July 23, as well as some special programming for preview night. You can check out the entire day’s worth of activities right here for yourself. Here are some of the highlights …

• During preview night on Wednesday, Warner Bross Television will show some of their pilots for upcoming TV series — Human Target, Vampire Diaries and the remake of V.
• The first panel that jumped out on me on Thursday is the 10 a.m. LongBox Digital Comics panel with Rantz Hoseley, Jeff Katz and other special guests as they demonstrate the product. They’ll also discuss, and no doubt announce, some of the partnerships they’ve formed with various comic companies.
• Interestingly enough, before the LongBox panel even ends, there’s a Motion Comics panel featuring folks from Warner Bros. and DC, including Paul Levitz, Dave Gibbons and Paul Dini. It starts at 10:30 a.m.
• Also at 10:30 a.m., Douglas Wolk and the folks from io9.com will talk about science fiction. I mention this because it may be your only opportunity to heckle our old friend Graeme McMillan.
• Several comic companies have panels on Thursday: IDW, Bongo Comics, Archaia, Devil’s Due, Top Shelf, Mondo Marvel, Vertigo, DC’s Superman books, DC’s Justice Society books, Archie Comics and Oni Press. There’s also a joint Cartoon Books and Abstract Studios panel, as Jeff Smith and Terry Moore are sharing booth space at the con this year. It says to expect a special announcement from Smith.
• There are also several spotlight panels on the con’s special guests, including Geoff Johns, Leinil Francis Yu, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Gene Yang, Richard Thompson, Gail Simone, Kevin Eastman, Jimmy Gownley and Bill Sienkiewicz, among others.
• As this is the con’s big 40th anniversary, they’ll have several panels that look back at the con’s origins and past … including a reunion panel for most of the members of the band Seduction of the Innocent.
• Movie panels on Thursday include Kick-Ass, Astro Boy and The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, among others.
• There are several “how to” panels featuring creators like Zander Cannon, Andrew Pepoy (who will teach you how to network at the show), J. Michael Straczynski and several creators from Marvel in a panel led by C. B. Cebulski.
• Thursday night brings the debut of the Green Lantern: First Flight animated DVD movie.

Per the site, they’ll be rolling out the schedules for each day over the next four days … so check back often.

From the "KLiC!" comic

Controversy | A U.K. charity is under fire for a comic strip depicting a crucifix-wearing boy bullying a Muslim girl. The comic appears in the latest issue of KLiC!, a magazine for children ages 8 to 13 in public care, published by The Who Cares? Trust.

Mike Judge of The Christian Institute says the comic is “a clumsy caricature, symptomatic of a culture which says it is OK to bully Christians in the name of diversity.” However, Natasha Finlayson of The Who Cares? Trust claims the crucifix was intended as “bling” and not a religious symbol. [Telegraph]

Legal | The Michigan Supreme Court has remanded the case of Michael George to appellate court for a full hearing to decide whether his murder conviction should be reinstated. The retailer and convention organizer was found guilty in March 2008 of the 1990 shooting of his first wife Barbara. However, the judge later overturned the jury conviction, citing prosecutorial misconduct and possible new evidence.

A hearing is scheduled for today to determine whether George will be released from jail pending a new trial. [Detroit Free Press]

Creators | Jules Feiffer talks about his long career, and working for Will Eisner: “I showed him my samples which he thought had no promise at all. And only when I started talking about his work and it was clear that I knew everything he had done, from the first thing that he had ever printed, that he got interested in me. He had men in the inner office working on The Spirit. There was a penciller named John Spranger and a letterer named Sam Rosen. All of these were good guys. All of [them] were very professional. And none of them had any interest in Eisner at all. This was just a job. And they actually thought Will’s stuff was rather old-fashioned. They just considered him old hat. And I considered him a great artist. And so essentially he hired me as a groupie.” [Bookslut]

Creators | Steve Duin chats with Playboy cartoonist Doug Sneyd at Emerald City ComiCon. [The Oregonian]

Creators | Graeme McMillan talks to writer Geoff Johns about Flash: Rebirth. [io9.com]

Publishing | Josh Blaylock, founder and president of Devil’s Due Publishing, explains those bizarre comics solicitations featuring President Obama: “Everyone’s doing just these little cameos and stuff. I said, let’s just go do something nuts. I want people to look at this and say ‘What the hell is this?’ ” [Chicago Tribune]

Check out the full list of nominees in the press release after the jump.

*****

NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2009 JOE SHUSTER AWARDS

Toronto, Canada — April 2, 2009. From coast to coast, Canada is home to many of the comic book industry’s top talents. The JOE SHUSTER AWARDS are a way of recognizing and celebrating the achievements of these Canadian creators – past, present and future. Since their establishment in 2004, the JOE SHUSTER CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR AWARDS have been Canada’s national awards program for recognizing the outstanding achievements of Canadian comic book creators, publishers and retailers. The awards are named after pioneering Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster who, along with writer Jerry Siegel, created the iconic super-powered hero, Superman.

Between January and March 2009, the Nominees were selected from master lists of eligible works originally published in English and/or French in 2008. Canadian citizens living at home or abroad, as well as permanent residents were eligible for consideration. Now that the list of nominees has been finalized, nominated creators will have their work reviewed by a jury, who will ultimately decide the winners. Winners will be announced at a public ceremony in Toronto on June 27th, 2009.

JOE SHUSTER AWARDS 2009 NOMINEES for Work Published in 2008

Artist/Dessinateur

• Marc Delafontaine – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
• Dale Eaglesham – Justice Society of America #12, 14-15, 18-22 (DC Comics)
• David Finch – Ultimatum #1-2 (Marvel Comics)
• Karl Kerschl & Serge LaPointe – Teen Titans: Year One #1-6 (DC Comics)
• Jacques Lamontagne – Les Druides, Tome 4 : La Ronde des Géants (Soleil Productions)
• Steve McNiven – Amazing Spider-Man #546-548, Wolverine #66-70 (Marvel Comics)
• Steve Rolston – Emiko Superstar (DC/Minx), “Familiar” – House of Mystery #4 (DC/Vertigo), You Ain’t No Dancer #3 (New Reliable Press)
• Stephen Sadowski – Avengers/Invaders #1-7 (Marvel Comics/Dynamite Entertainment), Superpowers #0 (Dynamite Entertainment), Jack the Lantern: Ghosts #2 (Castle Rain Entertainment)

Cartoonist/Créateur

• Grégoire Bouchard – Vers les Mondes Lointains (Paquet)
• Darwyn Cooke – “Chapter X: The Greater Good” Justice League: The New Frontier Special #1, The Spirit #12 (DC Comics)
• Francis Descharnais – Burquette (Les 400 coups)
• Jean-Paul Eid – Des tondeuses et des hommes (La Pastèque)
• Michel Gagne – “The Saga of Rex” Chapter 4 – Flight Vol. 5 (Ballantyne Books)
• Faith Erin Hicks – The War at Ellsmere (Slave Labor Graphics)
• Jeff Lemire – Essex County Vol. 3: The Country Nurse (Top Shelf)
• Seth – “Thoreau MacDonald” Kramer’s Ergot 7 (Buenaventura Press)
• Dave Sim – Glamourpuss #1-4, Judenhaas (Aardvark-Vanaheim)

Colourist/Dessinateur Couleur

• Jean-Francois Beaulieu – G.I. Joe: America’s Elite 31-36, Voltron: A Legend Forged 1 (Devil’s Due), Marvel Zombies 3 #1-3, Wonderful Wizard of OZ #1, X-Men: Divided We Stand #1, X-Men Legacy #215 (Marvel Comics)
• Blond – Team 14 #1 (Digital Webbing), Freshman: Summer Vacation Special #1, Magdalena/Daredevil #1, True Blood: The Great Revelation NN, Witchblade: Takeru Manga #11-12 (image/Top Cow), Ultimate Fantastic Four #50-59 (Marvel Comics), Beyond Wonderland #4, Grimm Fairy Tales 2008 Annual (Zenoscope)
• Chris Chuckry – Brave and the Bold #17-18, Countdown to Mystery #4-8, Simon Dark #4-7, Two Face: Year One #1-2 (DC Comics), Air 1-5 (DC/Vertigo), G.I. Joe #0 (Devil’s Due), Comic Book Tattoo (image), Amazing Spider-Man #546, 565-567, newuniversal: Shockfront #1-2, The Twelve #1-8 (Marvel Comics)
• Maryse Dubuc – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
• Nathan Fairbairn – Fear Agent 21 (Dark Horse), Pilot Season: The Core #1 (image/Top Cow), Civil War: House of M #3, Guardians of the Galaxy #1-3, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? NN, Wolverine: Origins #31, X-Men: Divided We Stand #2, X-Men: Kingbreaker #1, X-Men Legacy #217, X-Men: Manifest Destiny #1, 3, Young Avengers Presents #1 (Marvel Comics), Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen #3 (Oni Press)
• Lovern Kindzierski – Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1-2 (DC Comics), The Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons #1-2Coraline (HarperCollins), Giant-Size Incredible Hulk #1 (Marvel Comics) (Devil’s Due),
• François Lapierre – “Gédéon et la bête du lac” Contes et légendes du Québec (Glénat Québec), Magasin général 4 (Casterman)
• Dave McCaig – Star Wars: Dark Times #11-12 (Dark Horse), Action Comics #861-863, Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge #1-3. Joker’s Asylum: The Penguin #1, JSA Classified #35-37 (DC Comics), Family Dynamic #1-2 House of Mystery #4, Northlanders #2-8, 11-2 (DC/Vertigo), Broken Trinity: Angelus #1, First Born: Aftermath #1, Pilot Season: The Core #1 (image/Top Cow), Fantastic Four Cosmic Size Special #1, Secret Invasion X-Men #1-4, Ultimate Iron Man II #3-5 (Marvel Comics), Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen #2 (Oni Press) (DC/Johnny DC),

Writer/Écrivain

• Ian Boothby – Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #14, Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2008, Futurama #35-39, Simpsons Comics #136, 141, 148, Simpsons Summer Shindig #1, Simpsons Super Spectacular #7 (Bongo Comics)
• Cecil Castellucci – Janes in Love (DC/Minx)
• Darwyn Cooke – “Dragster Riot starring Robin the Boy Wonder”, “Wonder Woman and Black Canary” Justice League: The New Frontier Special #1, Superman Confidential 11 (DC Comics)
• Maryse Dubuc – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
• Ray Fawkes – The Apocalipstix (Oni Press)
• François Lapierre – “Gédéon et la bête du lac” Contes et légendes du Québec (Glénat Québec)
• Mariko Tamaki – Emiko Superstar (DC/Minx), Skim (Groundwood Books)
• J. Torres – The Family Dynamic #1-3, Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #11, 13, 17-19, Teen Titans Go! #51-55 (DC/Johnny DC), Wonder Girl #5-6 (DC Comics)

Cover/Couverture

• Adrian Alphona – Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Season Two #1 Variant (Marvel Comics)
• Darwyn Cooke – The Spirit #12 (DC Comics)
• Marc Delafontaine – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
• Dale Eaglesham – Justice Society of America #14 Variant (DC Comics)
• David Finch -Amazing Spider-Man #572 Variant (Marvel Comics)
• Philippe Girard – Les Ravins (Mécanique Générale)
• Niko Henrichon – Hostile Tome 1 (Dupuis)
• Steve McNiven – Kick-Ass #1 Variant (Marvel Comics)
• Dean Motter – Mister X: The Condemned #1 (Dark Horse)
• David Sim – Glamourpuss #4 Zombie Variant (Aardvark-Vanaheim)

Webcomics/Bandes Dessinées Web

• Kate Beaton – Hark! A Vagrant
• Michael Cho – Papercut
• Lar De Souza & Ryan Sohmer – Least I Could Do / Looking for Group
• Kathryn & Stuart Immonen – Moving Pictures
• Karl Kerschl – The Abominable Charles Christopher
• Gisele Lagace – Menage A 3
• Ramón K. Pérez– Kukuburi / Butternut Squash (w/Robert Coughler)
• Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo

Publisher/Éditeur

• Aardvark-Vanaheim
• Arcana Studio
• Conundrum Press
• Drawn & Quarterly
• La Pastèque
• Les 400 Coups/Mécanique Générale
• Red 5 Comics
• Udon Entertainment

Artist, Cartoonist, Colourist & Writer Nominees selected by: Jay Bardyla (Happy Harbor Comics), Éric Bouchard (Librarie Monet), Laurent Boutin (Librarie Planète BD), Ty Buttars (blogger and collector), Martin Dubé (Librarie Fichtre!), Rachelle Goguen (Strange Adventures, Living Between Wednesdays), Francis Hervieux (journalist and collector), Jonathan Kuehlein (The Toronto Star), Robin McConnell (Inkstuds podcast), Shawna Roe (Happy Harbor Comics) and the Vincent Massey College Comic Book Club (Montreal) under the direction of Mr. Steven Bakos. Coordinators: Kevin A. Boyd (English publications) and Francis Hervieux (French publications).

Cover Nominees selected by Éric Bouchard (Librarie Monet), Laurent Boutin (Librarie Planète BD), Kevin A. Boyd, Martin Dubé (Librarie Fichtre!), Peter Fisico (All New Comics), Robert Haines, Francis Hervieux (journalist and collector), Jason Truong and James Waley. Additional input provided by Ty Buttars (blogger and collector), and Rachelle Goguen (Strange Adventures, Living Between Wednesdays). Coordinators: Kevin A. Boyd (English publications) and Francis Hervieux (French publications).

Webcomics Nominees selected by the CCBCAA Executive. Coordinators: Kevin A. Boyd and Scott Townsend.

Publisher Nominees selected by Éric Bouchard (Librarie Monet), Laurent Boutin (Librarie Planète BD), Kevin A. Boyd, Allison Covey, Martin Dubé (Librarie Fichtre!), Peter Fisico (All New Comics), Francis Hervieux (journalist and collector), Jason Truong and James Waley. Coordinators: Kevin A. Boyd (English publications) and Francis Hervieux (French publications).

Comics for Kids / Bandes Dessinées pour Enfants

Nominees will be announced in early May 2009.

Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishers / Le Prix Gene Day pour Éditeurs Direct Canadian de Bandes Dessinées

Submissions from self-publishers will be accepted until May 18, 2009. Please visit http://joeshusterawards.com/2009-awards-sat-june-27/gene-day-award-for-canadian-self-publishers/ for full details. The winner of the Gene Day Award also receives a $500 Bursary.

The Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer /Le Prix Harry Kremer pour Détaillant Exceptionnel Canadien de Bandes Dessinées

Nominations from retailers and the general public will be accepted until May 18, 2009.

Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame / Temple de la renommée Créateur Canadien de Bandes Dessinées

Four inductees will be announced in early May 2009.

Congratulations to all of the nominees and all of the eligible creators for another memorable year of great comics, both in print and online!

About Joe Shuster (1914 – 1992)
With the permission of his estate, the Joe Shuster Awards are named in honor of the great artist, JOE SHUSTER (1914-1992), whose clear, dynamic style and inventive visual flourishes set the standard for graphic storytelling during the infancy of the North American comic book industry. It was Superman, a co-creation of Shuster and Siegel, which electrified the industry 71 years ago and, almost overnight, transformed comic books into an enormous pop-cultural phenomenon that endures to this day.

About The Joe Shuster Awards
The Joe Shuster Awards are Canada’s first national achievement awards for Canadians working on comic books, graphic novels and webcomics and the only awards without restrictions on language, content and/or genre. The Joe Shuster Awards honour the people who create comics, publish comics and sell comics. Creator nominees are nominated for their BODY OF WORK during the previous calendar year, not just for one specific work (except for cover art).

The Hall of Fame, Harry Kremer Retailer Award and the new Gene Day Award for self-publishers are selected by individual committees after a review and discussion of eligible and/or submitted candidates. Four Hall of Fame candidates will be initiated into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame in 2009. Aside from the retailer and self-publisher award committee, active creators can only act as advisors so as not to influence a bias in any of the creative awards categories.

The Joe Shuster Awards are run by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association (CCBCAA), a not-for-profit organization that relies on sponsorship, eBay and convention sales of art donations, prints and memorabilia as well as private donations. 2009 sponsors include: Certified Guaranty Company (CGC), Sipps Publishing, Diamond Distributors, Quebecor World, and comicspriceguide.com and all of the artists that donated pieces to last year’s Visions of an Icon: Superman art show and sale.

For more information please contact info@joeshusterawards.com or visit www.joeshusterawards.com

Barack the Barbarian

We’ve all heard countless times that President Barack Obama is a fan of Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian, and we saw where his affinity for the wall crawler led a few months ago. Now the other sword has dropped.

On Sunday, Comic Continuum posted Devil’s Due Publishing’s solicitations for June, and they include a comic titled Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli #1, written by Larry Hama. There’s also a poster offered of the cover to the first issue by Tim Seeley (pictured above). Here’s the full solicitation text:

BARACK THE BARBARIAN: QUEST FOR THE TREASURE OF STIMULI #1

Written by Larry Hama, art by various, covers by Tim Seeley and Rachelle Rosenberg.

From a far away land rises a mighty hero. The son of peasants from two different realms, the one known only as Barak protects the people of Hope Kingdom at all costs. Watch as he takes on the likes of Boosh the Dim, Red Sarah, and Cha-nee the Grim in this first issue!

But wait, there’s more!

Obama will appear in not one, but two comics from Devil’s Due, the other being Drafted: One Hundred Days:

DRAFTED: ONE HUNDRED DAYS

Written by Mark Powers, art and cover by Chris Lie.

Humanity has repulsed the first wave of alien invaders — but the battle has left much of America in shambles. As the coldest winter in a century assaults the starving, shell-shocked populace, it falls to a former U.S. Senator to rally a small construction unit in the frozen, haunted remains of Chicago. A man whose own destiny has been changed by the war: Barack Hussein Obama.

Also of note, Devil’s Due has also solicited Olympus by Geoff Johns and Butch Guice, which was originally published by Humanoids in Europe and then DC in the United States, when they had the license. Although it doesn’t star Obama, it is worth checking out.