A Second Chance at Sarah

A Second Chance at Sarah
The front cover of the Dark Horse Comics release of A Second Chance at Sarah.
Date	February 24, 2010
Main characters	Johnny
Publisher	Ape Entertainment Dark Horse Comics
Creative team
Writers	Neil Druckmann
Artists	Joysuke Wong
Letterers	Michael Thomas
Creators	Neil Druckmann
Editors	Kevin Freeman Brendan Wright
ISBN

A Second Chance at Sarah is a fantasy graphic novel written by Neil Druckmann, with illustrations by Joysuke Wong. The novel was originally published by Ape Entertainment on February 24, 2010; Dark Horse Comics re-released the novel on August 20, 2014. The book follows Johnny, who makes a deal with a demon to go back in time and save his dying wife, who fell into a coma upon the birth of their son.

Druckmann wrote the story in his spare time while working at the video game developer Naughty Dog. He considers A Second Chance at Sarah to be a personal story, focusing on the characters instead of the supernatural elements. Druckmann worked on several unsuccessful comic book ideas and pitches, before collaborating with Wong on A Second Chance at Sarah. Wong's work on the book was extensive, as she refined and extended Druckmann's initial concepts and ideas. The two worked on the book for over a year. The book received generally positive reviews. Critics particularly praised Wong's illustrations, as well as Druckmann's writing and character development.

Prior to working on A Second Chance at Sarah, writer Neil Druckmann developed a different comic book pitch for over a year, writing, drawing and lettering in full detail. When the pitch was rejected, he decided to work with an artist to finish a new pitch in a shorter time. He contacted artist Joysuke Wong, who agreed to collaborate; Druckmann called the collaboration the "easiest decision" he made while working on the comic, as he was very impressed by her artwork. In collaboration with each other, Druckmann and Wong developed the pitch—the first six pages of the story—in about two months. They worked on the comic for over a year prior to completion. Druckmann created a schedule for his work on the comic, primarily working at night due to his job at video game company Naughty Dog, where he was working on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009). He ensured that most of the writing and thumbnails were complete prior to on Uncharted 2, as he felt that it would be very difficult to work on both projects simultaneously.

Druckmann originally wrote A Second Chance at Sarah as a three-issue series, but narrowed it to a single graphic novel for ease of publishing. He also felt that there was a possibility that a first issue would not be successful enough to justify printing more. While writing the script for the comic, Druckmann drew thumbnail pages in order to visualize the flow of the story. During the writing period, he often switched between the thumbnails and the scripts. "Having the two influence each other keeps the process fresh and organic," said Druckmann. When he completed the script and thumbnails, he sent them to Wong, who interpreted the writing into her own style by sketching rough pages, ensuring the compositions worked well. She then refined the pages, conveying the subtlety in the emotions of the characters; Druckmann and Wong wished to avoid having any scenes feel melodramatic, in both writing and art. Following this, Wong added color to the pages. Druckmann expressed the importance of using colors to separate the different time periods of the story, and to mirror Johnny's emotional journey. The final step for Wong was painting, which involved defining details; Druckmann said that painting the artwork "[transforms] the rigid feel of the earlier versions to the unrestrained painterly look ... in the final pages".