Thursday, December 04, 2008

WHY I LIKE GARY LARSON


I'm a huge fan of Gary Larson's "Far Side." I even bought the 2 volume set that contains almost everything he ever did. I and the rest of my family pick it up all the time, and it comes in handy for killing water beetles and black widow spiders. Come to think of it, it would kill just about anything it was dropped on. The paper's the heavy kind that's made by melting powdered rock into the page. The result is a book that's as heavy and indestructible as a cinder block. I know it'll be a comfort to Gary that, long after his bones have turned to dust, people will still be killing bugs with his books.


Gary doesn't like to see his work on the net, but I want to talk what he does and I don't know how to do that without illustrations. I thought I might strike a balance by using only illustrations that are already on the net, that I got off Google Images. That way I'm not adding to what's already out there. I hope that's OK.



Well, Larson was the best newspaper cartoonist of his time, was he not? What I wonder is how he managed to get along with the syndicate. Didn't they try to censor him? Didn't he get notes like: "Nix this! Nobody'll understand it!" Maybe doing one panel cartoons helped. Maybe they come under less scrutiny.



And I can't figure out how the syndicate let him do cartoons without regular characters. Syndicate people can't be too different than the kind of people who run TV animation, and those guys (women, actually) want nothing but repeating characters in repeating locales like "The Simpsons." How did Gary manage to talk them into doing different characters and different situations?




Larson is the king of funny and deliberately ignorant staging. I love the way those two tall slabs (above) are awkwardly jammed up against each other in the middle of a ridiculously huge, empty plain. And look at the people! Larson must have watched a lot of old black and white animation. This cartoon (above) reminds me of old animation where people pour out of giant, deflating buildings like hordes of ants.

It's funny to think that, while TV executives were telling us that modern audiences required talking heads, Larson was out there making a fortune by doing broad, cartoony humor. His characters don't run around like the ones in the old cartoons, but the concepts are broad as they come.







Larson is frequently cited as an artist who can't draw well, but whose subject matter is so weird that it doesn't matter. I disagree. Larson's a terrific artist. If you don't think so, compare his work to imitators like Shuster and McPherson above. Unlike his imitators Larson's layouts are always clear and funny, and built around pleasing shapes and interesting negative spaces.

A lot of Larson's humor is in the backgrounds. I like to think that's because he thinks the world that characters inhabit is weird and funny, not just the characters. In the kitchen cartoon above Shuster draws a completely generic room. he doesn't seem to have an opinion about it. If Larson, who does have an opinion about kitchens, had drawn the same room he would have let us know how weird it was that people cook their food in a funky, boxy place like that.



One-panel newspaper cartoons used to be fairly flat. If all you're going to do is have a guy sit on a chair and make droll comments to his wife, I guess flat is all you need. Not so with Larson. He often deals with big, flamboyant subjects that need room and 3 dimensions to play. His characters are almost flat but his backgrounds go way back!

BTW, I notice that Larson uses a clean Rapidograph-type line. No thick and thin, no scratchiness. Apparently Crumb isn't the only artist who draws that way. Me, I usually prefer thick and thin, but I admit that there's something obsessive and weird about lines with uniform thickness, and that perfectly compliments Larson's type of humor. It's a case where the medium exactly matches the message.



Terrific staging (above)! Clampett did something similar toward the end of "Book Review." Chaplin did it in "The Rink." It's a deliberately unnatural and ignorant background that obviously exists just to put across a gag!






Here's (above) some weird Larson people bunched unnaturally close together and talking underneath an absurdly empty and bleak ceiling. You're laughing before you read the punchline. That's the way cartoons are supposed to be. The art is supposed to be funny, not just the words. The mood of the room is supposed to be funny, all by itself.

How do you like the patterns on the women's dresses? How do you like their hair styles and glasses? Isn't it a relief to see women who are drawn funny, and not cute or beautiful? Let serious people draw beautiful women. We're cartoonists. We're above that. Women should only be attractive when that's necessary to motivate the gags, as it frequently was in Tex Avery and John K cartoons. The same goes for men. No attractive men unless the gag needs them!!!






I love the way Gary uses windows. In his cartoons we're frequently looking into a room or out of it. We humans love to be inside our boxes, which we decorate with little knick-knacks, but we have a great curiosity about what's going on outside the box. We can't seem to make up our minds about where we want to be, inside or outside. Inspired by Larson, I'd love to do a cartoon with lots of window action.

A closing note: I didn't mean to slam Mc Pherson as hard as I did. He's a Larson spinoff, but he puts a lot of work into everything he does and manages to be funny much more often than most of his peers.

64 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! This has given me a much deeper appreciation of Gary's art, the quality of the writing in the gags is so excellent and unique that you don't realize how integral the staging is to the humor.

This is why he could get away with such esoteric and obscure gags cause even when you didnt get the "gag" you still laughed at the art. You should pick up the prehistory of the Far Side, half of the book is him talking about fights he had with his editors, complaint letters from outraged parents, and him just talking about the creative process in general.

http://www.amazon.com/PreHistory-Far-Side-Anniversary-Exhibit/dp/0836218515/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228557939&sr=8-1

Anonymous said...

Are you a fan of Roger Ebert? Your writing styles are very similar

Anonymous said...

love the toons

Anonymous said...

Im sure he wouldnt mind this post, from what Ive heard his fears were more his cartoons being posted on reprehensible websites and having to deal with that, KKK etc.

Anonymous said...

You don't have any anecdotes about Gary do you? He seems like a pretty low key person

Anonymous said...

The mediocre art wouldnt be that much of a problem in the ripoffs if the gags were at least really funny

Anonymous said...

Macpherson is one of the better Larson Spinoffs, he actually tries to come up with original situations involving characters instead of the stock puns and generic gags of most Panel cartoons.

John Callahan is really good too.

Roz Chast has a really quirky visual style and Charles Barsottis stuff can be cute.

Im not a fan of Robert Mankoff though whos the editor of New Yorker cartoons. Guys a pompous ass, He has all sorts of really dry intellectual opinions about "the rules of comedy", His own stuff comes off like when a famous Classical musician "lets their hair down" and does a duet with a famous jazz musician

Anonymous said...

The Far Side used to be called "natures way". The name was thought up by the syndicate, I think it was a stroke of luck since although it was meant as an adjective it came to represent a physical place.

It is unusal how much incidental detail and depth there are to his cartoons, Gahan Wilson is the only panel cartoonist whos gags have the same 4 Dimensional quality to them, the fun is imagining what just happened or whats about to happen. Usually a hapless dope about to fall off a cliff or get eaten by bears.

David Martingale said...

Great post, Uncle Eddie.

I hadn't really looked at Larson's stuff in years, and you've made me remember how good he is.

I Think your comparison with Crumb is an apt one. Both are able to infuse a little life and a little funniness into every coffee mug and baseboard.

Hans Flagon said...

Forget the shoddy imitations of Larson, I used to think that Gary Larson had taken the surrealism of B. Kliban, and made it safe for the masses, by replacing naked people and cats with animals.

Not to denigrate Mr. Larson any, I just am slightly saddened that those that latched on the Mr. Larson with such fervor never were exposed to B. Kliban, who was both relatively wilder (nekkid people in gags) and relatively safer (cats) in a way that left him wholly ignored.

So do I see Larson as wholly original? No. I agree with most of what Eddie says praising Larson however.. and I consumed that content as soon as it was created and available.

But I do sometimes think he stole B. Klibans thunder, and Larson fans flame me for suggesting a precursor or a similarity. But I think it is still there, and it is their problem if they refuse to seek out B. Kliban in their hero worship of Larson.

I think Tracy Chapman similiarly enjoyed a wildly successful career that I thought was blazed by the similarly voiced black folksinger songwriter Joan Armatrading who was successful, but not at quite the same level, and was quickly forgotten. Its like Monkees fans had never heard of the Beatles.

Kelly Toon said...

I remember reading in an introduction to one of the Far Side collections, that there is a specific Far Side cartoon for everyone.

One of my favorites is a woman in the drivers seat of a car, looking over her shoulder at the giant, man-sized bee sitting in the back seat. Her thought bubble says "There's a bee in the car, but I'm not going to panic. I'm just going to pull over and let it out. Oh god, there's a bee in the car."

Found it: http://a1.vox.com/6a00c2251c3baa549d00d10a7b67b98bfa-320pi

p spector said...

Thanks for the insight into Larson. It's amazing that he was allowed to do what he did in the first place.
Re the imitators: Undoubtedly newspaper comics is a highly competitive business. Competing syndicates often look for others who can knock-off what's popular. Although these other cartoonists might have their own original ideas of what they'd rather present, they could easily be shown the door if they start moving away from the syndicate's intention.

Bitter Animator said...

I loooove Gary Larson cartoons. I have that two volume set too and it is just amazing. I bought it thinking I could pull it out every now and again and it would inspire me.

It does exactly the opposite.

Larson has such a unique take on the world that it sort of shuts me down - I don't have that unique take on the world. I don't have any take on the world that is even close to being as unique as that. I probably never will.

But I do enjoy going through them. He has an incredible mind and while he may have imitators who sometimes succeed in being funny, it's that unique view that makes all the difference.

And I agree with you on his artwork. It's frequently brilliant and head and shoulders above many cartoonists who look like they have a rather polished style but actually draw little more than, well, heads and shoulders.

Most, if not all, his panels would be nothing without the illustrations. They would be far less with different illustrations. He's a cartoonist. A real cartoonist.

Hans Flagon said...

Crumb has a thick and thin line. Just because he uses a lot of hatching doesn't mean he is a slave to the slingular line of the rapidograph.

Brubaker said...

Larson was always my favorites. I was lucky enough to get Stars and Stripes, which reran Larson's panels for years (they also reran Calvin & Hobbes).

There were two animated specials based on Far Side: "Tales from the Far Side" and "Tales from the Far Side II." They were made in Canada at International Rocketship, with Marv Newland directing.

I think both are available on DVD, although it's very expensive.

Ian Andersen said...

When I was younger I never realized that MacPherson wasn't the same guy and I always wondered why the cartoons in the paper were never quite as funny as the Farside books I would check out from the library.

What is your opinion of Dan Piraro?

Anonymous said...

I love the Far Side. The Floating Head of Death is one of my favorites! I often wondered what your opinion of Gary Larson was.

Brubaker said...

Eddie,

Sorry if this is inappropriate but I can't find any other way to contact you. Would it be OK if I interview you for my blog? I've been in the animation kick lately and want to do some interviews with someone who worked in the field.

I've previously interviewed newspaper cartoonists, one of which was actually printed in an editorial cartoon trade magazine.

http://bakertoons.blogspot.com/search/label/interviews

If you're alright with this, send me a note at cbrubaker@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

What other people thought

http://forum.grasscity.com/general/303211-genreration-nine-different-types-white-guys.html

Anonymous said...

I think there is an undeniable influence of Kliban on Larson but they were both their own artists.

I reject the idea that Gary had some grand scheme to dumb down Klibans cartoons for the masses and make millions though.

Look at the first year of Larsons cartoons and youll find he was MUCH more influenced by Gahan Wilson than Kliban, before eventually finding his own voice.

Klibans awesome but his cartoons are a brilliant artist making specific observations about the world, or generally just being surreal. You won't be able to trace very many of Gary's cartoons back to Kliban ones the way you will with Todays panels and the Far Side. Just look at how often the phrase "suddenly realized" comes up in panel comics today. Dont you think you would have seen at least one "Figure 1" in Gary's cartoons if he was so intent on ripping Kliban off?



Many people use the Beehive hairdos and Catseye glasses as sort of "smoking guns" that Gary ripped off Klibans art. Just look at photographs from the fifties and sixties, they were both drawing from life.

Do you know if Kliban ever said anything about the Far Side?

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about Gary's unique perspective, but realize that Gary didnt even start cartooning till he was 30, and his observations came from life and all the weird occupations he had. One thing thats preventing any future Gary Larsons coming out of the internet is the insular nature of "internet culture"
that encourages everyone to speak in banal code "Epic win, Lulz" and call anyone who calls anyone disagrees with the groupthink or tries to express themselves a fag.

The next Far Side will be written by a real human being like the people who comment here, not an "internet person" thats rotting away on 4chan.

Caleb said...

Great post, Eddie. I did a Far Side-ish comic here. It would be great to hear anyone's critique of it. I'd like to do some more one panel comics, but not if people think it's a rip off.

The Barker said...

Great extrapolations, Eddie! I haven't thought about The Far Side in years, and you're right, the layouts are what's absolutely necessary to sell such weird gags in a single glance/read.

The samples you posted also make me realize, most of them didn't even NEED text, like that karate class one or "The dam bursts."

Hilarious beehive-hairdoo women aside, sometimes there would be a really simple detail in an already simple drawing that made the whole thing hang together. I always think of the two dogs watching their master open a can, grinning at each other, and going "Oh boy! It's dog food AGAIN!" Their eyes are just ping-pong balls with dots, but I can always perfectly remember the specific goofiness of their delight.

Anonymous said...

re: Caleb. It shows some promise, Try to do more cartoons from life, Id avoid trying to make cartoons that use common phrases and idioms as your starting off point.

A lot of writing these sorts of cartoons is making weird connections between ideas and Verbal humor offers the path off least resistance, try working on being an absurdist, every cartoon you do should involve stretching an observation from your own life

Anonymous said...

I found this in that forum link, Youre emo Eddie!


'The writer of that is an emo.

He lists like 5 sub-groups of emo that you wouldn't even know existed if you weren't one yourself.'

Anonymous said...

http://thepaincomics.com/

Theres a really good essay on Kliban here in the "writings" section.

I disagree with his assessment of The Far Side though. One thing people who write dead serious, intellectual literary criticism is their disdain for comedy for comedies sake. The phrase "merely hilarious" tends to come up a lot.

Its the same with the dry intellectual scene surrounding "Comix" today. People using words like 'Semiotic'.

Anonymous said...

The comic in that Frame at the top is one of my faves "Russel(?) I'm not content". The guys managed to avoid slaughter and got his wife a gorgeous house and jewelry and now he just wants to sit back and watch tv and have a beer and his social climbing wife isnt satisfied.

The gag itself is just your basic "absurd substitution" he probably got the idea from a tennesse williams or Edward Albee play where the Married couple hates each other. Turning them into cows is his way of turning his observation into a cartoon.

This is where a lot of syndicated cartoonists fail since they think that the genius is in doing a cartoon about talking cows, where the real genius came from the meticulous observation and the talking cow was just his way of cartoonifying that observation

Anonymous said...

One rule I think all young cartoonists should have is a zero references rule, people avoid being creative since they can get by on their own subcultures readymade comedy kits.

Amongst oldstyle nerds every joke is a Monty Python refernence. With todays nerds its references to lolspeak memes, video games
"the cake is a lie" and Star Wars.

Amongst hipsters some people rely completely on Simpsons quotes and snarky irony.

The amount of mashups on the internet is really troubling, what really bugs me are the people who overdub stuff like Beavis and Butthead, Python Sketches and Standup routines to clips from anime like Naruto. What the hell???

Anonymous said...

That "my brain is full" cartoon is a favorite of mine, its a really fun excercise to take ideas and apply them in a stupid way.

A similar cartoon is a kid with a blank space between his mouth and eyes saying "Mom, dad, the nose fairy left me a whole quarter!". Dont try to construct a cartoon, just let your play. Take a normal everyday concept and apply it where it would be moronic, dare to be stupid

Anonymous said...

On the subject of references Any parodies of the "Truth, you can't handle the truth!" speech from A few good men, and the "I'm afraid I can't let you do that" quote from H.A.L. in 2001 should be stricken from the record

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX4MdXF3OWI&eurl=http://kotaku.com/5102231/80s-australian-nes-commercial-will-haunt-your-every-waking-moment?autoplay=true

Anonymous said...

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-12-03/food/seattle-s-new-way-to-fetishize-coffee/

Cartoonists should be making fun of stuff like this, not making smug jokes about video games and Windows Vista for other smug nerds

I.D.R.C. said...

Goddamnit, don't ever mention KLIBAN here.

Crumb never had a thick and thin. He had a thin that has gotten thicker. It's all rapidograph, which is fixed width by definition. Maybe it's the same pen and he's drawing smaller and more sloppy.

Kali Fontecchio said...

I liked them when I was in dentention as a kid- he had a larson calendar on his desk.

cwyatt said...

Great post Eddie. I always thought it was really difficult to come up with a one panel joke. His jokes are ironic and brilliant. I'm a huge fan.

Anonymous said...

I read both The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes a lot when I was a kid. I was really sad when both of them quit, it seemed to be the end of good newspaper comics. Now there seems to be a few good ones (Lio, Cul de Sac, Get Fuzzy) but its still mostly old comics that need to be put down (I'm looking at you Marmaduke!). You should do a post on Calvin and Hobbes and Bill Watterson, I think it was too good for the newspapers.

lastangelman said...

Thank goodness Larson wisely chose not to pursue animating his creations after that those two half hour specials. Television execs would have ruined what makes a Larson joke work. I can just imagine the execs spitballing ideas at Larson:"Howzabout we do a series about your freakin' cows? No? Whaddabout, say, a sitcom about a weird family that lives in a town, where strange stuff happens, it'll be like, you know, Seinfeld, but like the dog and cat talks, it'll be funny, like the Simpsons." After retching, Larson would have thrown several chairs and ran from that meeting screaming.
You've nailed something about Larson and that he knows exactly how to stage a joke. I don't know Larson's method, but it is interesting you mentioned Chaplin. If you haven't yet seen it or yet have it, borrow Unknown Chaplin from someone, it is a fascinating documentary of how Chaplin made films and also how he staged jokes in his films (maybe Katie or Kali has a copy?). In the concrete Larson books you have, does he describe his method or is it merely a complete compendium of his oeuvre, with little or no commentary from the author?

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Larson, but I can't believe you think he drew better than Bill Watterson, (Calbin & Hobbes) the greatest newspaper cartoonist of the 1980s and 1990s.

Another thing I love about Larson is that not only is the writing funny, it's stylized. Larson writes like a novelist. He writes deliberately verbose exposition to add to the gag. He could have just said "Nerd sniffing dogs" but that's not funny at all. The phrase "Suddenly, and to Rodney's horror" IS the gag.

Nobody else writes like that anymore.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jorge: Sometimes tastes are purely subjective. Watterson was great, very skilled and charming. If I'd been an editor at the syndicate I'd have given him anything he wanted. I just dug Far Side even more. I guess it was closer to my own way of seeing the world.

Last: Not much commentary in the set. I wonder why?

Anon: My style is like Roger Ebert's!? Haw!

Kelly: Hilarious!

Brubaker: Marv Newland's best stuff is great! I wish i could have seen his Far Side shows

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: Thanks for the Prehistory tip! I'll look it up!

Anon: It was weird to see myself discussed like that. It made me feel like Scrooge in The Christma Carol listening to people talk about him after he was dead!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

brubaker: I tried to check out your blog, but there was no blog to check out!

Anonymous said...

I agree Jorge about the writing, most panel cartoonists today use the captions as a means of clunky exposition, Gary's helped set the mood.

"somewhere off in the distance, a dog barked"

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmiO6OIirqU

Heres a clip from tales From the Far Side.

The whole series used to be up on youtube but it mustve been taken down.

I know a guy that worked on it, Gary's the nicest guy you'll ever meet according to him.

http://www.thefarside.com/ you can buy the dvd here/

Brubaker said...

Eddie,

Okay, try this link.

http://tinyurl.com/6g2zrz

Aaronphilby said...

I agree that mankoff is a turd. on of my faves is Charles Barsotti, though. He's a New Yorker Cartoonist. Diffee's pretty good, also, but not at all cartoony. I also like this guy:

http://aaronphilby.com/cartoons/kangaroo.html

Shawn Dickinson said...

Larson drew the funniest jungle natives! I remember laughing out loud at his native drawings before I was even old enough to read the captions.

I also like Larson's monsters!

Anonymous said...

William Hamilton is the worst of the New Yorker cartoonists. I cant even project myself into a state of mind thats pretentious to enjoy his stuff

Anonymous said...

I never knew such a collection existed. I've had that floppy "Weiner Dog Art" forever-- Time to upgrade!

Lester Hunt said...

I had always thought of Larson as someone with great conceptual humor but had never really reflected on him as a visual artist. I have a new respect for him now!

Lester Hunt said...

"Are you a fan of Roger Ebert?" I'd much rather hear Eddie's opinion than Roger's, regardless of the subject.

Anonymous said...

The worst/funniest book Ive ever read is "The Naked Cartoonist" by Robert Mankoff. He has such a bland outlook on comedy and has all sorts of arbitrary rules on how youre supposed to write cartoons. He reminds me a lot of Richard Williams in that respect.

http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Cartoonist-Enhance-Your-Creativity/dp/1579122361/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228689289&sr=8-1

Anonymous said...

You should try your hand at panel cartoons Eddie! Even if its just something to post every once in awhile on this blog

Anonymous said...

This reminds me a lot of your posts on guys like Rube Goldberg

ComiCrazys said...

Eddie - You beat me to a Larson post. I decided to post Felix the Cat instead.

Yeah, Pre-History will give you some answers you seek along with lots of great anecdotes and hate mail. I also have the 2-Volume tome. Far Side was and still is the only comic to make me laugh out loud, and I'm talking about, in some instances, uncontrolable laughing with hi-pitch girlie squeals. I'll do my Larson post later this week.

PS - Do you have the 2 Tales from the Far Side VHS tapes?

PPS - As god-like a cartoonist Watterson was/is, I cant shell out for the monster collection. To me, Calvin & Hobbes went the way of Peanuts and lost its childhood innocence and waxed philosophical too soo and too much for my taste. give me the days of Calvin flushing himself in the toilet and using a marker to color back in the hair he had cut off before his school picture.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Brubaker: The link worked this time! I spent half an hour there reading. Nice site! I'll write to you about the interview!

Comicrazy: Clicking on your name doesn't link to your blog!

I didn't see the Larson specials. I'm curious because Newland directed them and he'd be an interesting choice for an interpreter. Maybe they'll show up on YouTube again!

Lester: Thanks for the compliment! How are things? This is an era when we deperately need philosophers!

Aaron: You got me curious to see Mankoff's book. I'll take a look next time I go to Border's.

Hryma said...

Awesome. We only used to get Dad Larson cards for his birtdays and such when I was a youngin', then we just bought him every book that was available at the time, it was cheaper.

I don't think the show ever quite worked. Though I did like "the sky at night is big and bright, *clap *clap" "*clap...bang" something like that?

Aaronphilby said...

It's not that mr Mankoff isn't talented and clever, but he's the one rejection letters come from.

Anonymous said...

Thats probably one strong case for resentment amongst cartoonists Aaron but Ive never submitted cartoons to the New Yorker. I just see him as having the same bland conservative (creatively not politicaly) influence that Walt Disney had on Disney

ComiCrazys said...

Oops, sorry.
ComiCrazys

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Comicrazy: Nice blog! I bookmarked it and will definitely come back!

allen mez said...

Just found this post. Excellent. I agree Larson was a great artist. He said he was greatly influenced by Don Martin who was also an incredibly solid draftsman. Both their styles are immediately readable with such engaging characters and clear layout. They also didn't have repeating "hero" characters in repeating locations. It was all about the gag. Wonderful.

Unknown said...

Hey, Uncle Eddie!

You're a Larson fan? Small world, isn't it?

Which one's your favorite Far Side cartoon? Mine has to be the real reason dinosaurs became extinct.

Genius! I'd show you a picture of it, but I can't now. I'll have to let you see it later.

Bente Denmark said...

Dear eddie
I really really hope you could help mee! I am a Danish PHd student which is to teach epidemiology and I have been desperately looking for a surden Gary Larson Cartoon which would be PERFECT! to illustrate the subject, as a contrast to working as a doctor ( which I myself is)
It ( as I remember) shows people falling off a cliff and doctosrs standing at other side of the cliff, treating people but not considering how they got hurt.. Does it ring a bell? :-S
I hope you ( Or someone else?) could help med with a reference for a cartoonbook or somewhere online it can be found... My mail is bentesander@hotmail.com.
thanks a lot :-D
Bente

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Bente: Aaargh! I've racked my brain and I can't remember that gag. I'll repost your request in the current comments page (july 21, 2011) and see if anybody responds.