Monday, August 18, 2014

Comic Review (ARC): A Second Chance at Sarah (HC) by Neil Druckmann

A Second Chance at Sarah
Written by Neil Druckmann
Art by Joysuke Wong
Colors by Joysuke Wong
Words by Michael Thomas

Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Publication Date:August 20, 2014
Format:FC, 96 pages; HC
Price:$14.99
Age range:14
ISBN-10:1-61655-423-1
ISBN-13:978-1-61655-423-1
As his wife Sarah lies dying, John makes a deal with a demon for a desperate chance to save her! Transported to their childhood, John gets a single day to prevent the tragedy that led to Sarah’s present-day doom, all while trying to convince her that he really is who he says!

* An original graphic novel from the Last of Us creative director!


The story begins with a life given, a life taken, and the revelation that a deal with the devil facilitated it all.

Johnny finds himself overwhelmed at the birth of his son and subsequently learning his wife, Sarah, is in a coma. Dying. It's when Johnny finds her necklace on which is a demonic talisman that speaks to him, offering him a chance to strike a deal and reverse the deal struck with Sarah. Johnny accepts and is thrust back in time to the mid-90s, back into his seventeen-year-old self to find Sarah and stop her before she makes her deal with the devil.

The whole beat-the-devil routine is something visited upon a lot in fiction, but that's because it is so often a compelling tale. And with Druckman's dash of Back to the Future thrown in and having Johnny go back in time to change the past and Sarah's fate--and that of their infant son--the story is made all the more compelling.

I'm just a sucker for a good time-travel story, I suppose. Go about it clumsily and the story just winds up insulting the reader's intelligence, but by playing with paradox and using the device as smartly as you can, a story can stand out from the pack. And I think A Second Chance at Sarah did just that. It seems pretty cut-and-dry when he's first thrown into the angsty Generation X vibe that was the mid-90s, but as the story develops and his interactions with Sarah progress, the story kind of turns on itself in a fun way. Their first meeting is nothing at all like how they originally met, but it winds up that these two seemed pretty destined to wind up together and have instant chemistry.

Joysuke's artwork was pretty breathtaking in spots, too. There was this not quite in focus style that gave the whole book a nostalgic tinge to it. And her ability to capture the action or focus in one a particular character's gesture during quieter and reflective moments really helped pull the story together for an experience I am totally up for revisiting.

It's a great collaboration between writer and illustrator to make a memorable, romantic, fantastical tale. I am certainly up for more, whatever that might be.


4 1/2 Sheep




Gef Fox

No comments:

Post a Comment