I just read Ultrasound. It was interesting at first and I liked some of the misdirects, but WAY overlong. By the end of it, I felt like I wasted my time. I didn't appreciate the disgusting pornographic sequence either. I can respect that the book took a big swing, but I give it a thumbs down at the end of the day.
>>153333158I kinda felt the same way. Way too long, but I liked the beginning, the twist, and the ending.Sadly, it's one of the best comics I've read that came out (in this case, was completed) in the last six years.
>>153333158Oh, and while I liked the art gimmick, I didn't like the style and designs as much.
you just read it again?
I'll throw you a bone OP. You could share a bit more about it since it doesn't exactly seem widely known here. It affected you enough to want to say something about it even if you felt like it wasted your time right? Here I'll even give your thread a little help. Here are some pages from Fantagraphics page description.>In this graphic novel, which has been adapted into a feature film starring Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men), Glen and Cyndi become unwitting test subjects in a mind-control experiment after a strange sexual encounter. They search for answers as their own memories become tools for manipulation.
>Driving home from a wedding late one night during a heavy storm, out of cell range, Glen blows out his tires. He knocks on the door of the only house he sees and is greeted by an uncomfortably friendly middle-aged man, Arthur, and his attractive younger wife, Cyndi. The strange couple pours him a drink, and then more drinks, followed by odd confessions and an unexpected offer that Glen can't refuse. Where Ultrasound zigs and zags from there is into a dizzying plot involving mind control, government secrets, gaslighting, and political intrigue that is always one step ahead of the reader. Stechschulte's brilliant use of color and mastery of comics storytelling yields a breathtaking puzzlebox of a sci fi thriller — the moment you finish, you will want to go back and reread Ultrasound from the start.
Here's a bit from a review:>https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/ultrasound-2/>Though the text is linear in structure, crucial information is withheld from readers, and the text gradually unfolds its full meaning in later sections. Ultrasound begins with Glen recounting a strange incident when a punctured tire leads him to the home of a seemingly married couple, Cyndi and Arthur. Arthur proposes that Glen engage in sexual relations with Cyndi, but that encounter ultimately fails. The following morning, Glen leaves in distress, but is later contacted by Arthur, who claims Cyndi is pregnant, while Cyndi herself expresses unease about Arthur’s increasingly “weird” behavior (122, Tier 4, panel 1). The first two parts present events as Glen remembers them, but this apparent reality is disrupted in the third part, when both he and Cyndi are revealed to be subjects in an experiment. Attempts at escape, helped by researcher Shannon, prove futile as continued hallucinations indicate that psychological escape is impossible, even if it appears to be physically achieved. In the concluding frames, the contrast between the effects of the experiment on another subject, Katie, and the experimenters’ smiling faces indicates ethical indifference and continued experimentation. In adopting this narrative structure, Stechschulte employs a distinctly Lynchian twist, in which the ordinary slips into the macabre, grotesque, and surreal.
>The formal regularity of the highly ordered square and rectangular panels stands in stark contrast to the story’s narrative structure characterized by tonal shifts that change the way the reader has perceived information in the previous section(s). This narrative structure approximates the fracture of memory experienced by Glen, Cyndi, and Katie, thereby embedding the story’s thematic essence in its form. Furthermore, Ultrasound’s color scheme is particularly significant. In the initial sections, blue represents the embedded narrative Glen recounts to his friend about a strange encounter, while red denotes the present-time conversation between Glen and his friend. However, at several moments, these colors bleed into one another, with red seeping into blue panels and vice versa, particularly on pg. 36, 67, and 70, where panels feature dual-colored outlines, thereby signaling transitions between conversational segments and narrated memory. The usage of color, therefore, emphasizes the story-within-a-story structure of Part 1 in a visually coherent and meaningful manner. The later sections expand the palette to include parrot green and cyan. Notably, pg. 51 to 63, which depicts a sexually explicit scene, appears to be produced using blue carbon paper, evident in their distinctive smudges and outlines, thereby visually distinguishing them from the rest of the book, while also thematically representing intimacy not as an idealized union of bodies but as an awkward, ongoing negotiation.
And lastly apparently this was made into an indie movie a couple years ago?>Ultrasound has also been adapted into an acclaimed feature film directed by Robert Schroeder and starring Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men), from a screenplay by Stechschulte. The film earned raves at the 2021 Tribeca Film Fest and is scheduled for theatrical release in March 2022 and will premiere streaming on Hulu in June. >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlQo9XI_fQ8And there you have it. Seems kind of an artsy fartsy book which sounds in line with what Fantagraphics publishes. Maybe interesting from a technical perspective? Anyway good luck on your thread OP.
