Rubin’s journey through comics is an interesting one. He explains that he first started reading comics at 8 years old when his aunt gifted him a Hulk story, and his love for the medium started later with friends in school reading Akira and Watchmen single issues, cementing that love.
“I grew up discovering all the great writers like Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis and Brian K. Vaughan… just all of these amazing storytellers using the medium in such a new way [was inspiring].” And that’s evident in his commitment to lore and the characters’ arcs.
While Time Sensitive represents the first time Rubin has ventured into his own ideas, it’s far from his first time building an epic story. He explains how his career writing for the beloved game Assassin’s Creed 2 informed his creative and business movements.
“The first one has to be good enough to grab people and show the potential of what it could be in order to get that opportunity to really build something big,” he says. ‘Starting not just a new IP, but a new label, having new collaborators that I had to get to know, figuring out how to work together to hook you right away is all very, very tricky. What I learned from big IP and video games is to start simple.”
This debut issue marks a significant milestone, not just as the first in the title’s six-issue run (and hopefully beyond), but also as the first title to come out of Rubin’s very own comic book company Strange Land Comics. Rubin enthusiastically explains his driving philosophy stating, “Life is too short for anything but ‘fuck yes’ projects.” And this mentality fueled his leap into the independent comics space. “I started this company trying to figure out how the hell do I put a comic book out? pulled the trigger”
This enthusiastic and committed spirit even extends to the book’s Kickstarter campaign, which offers a treasure trove of rewards, including items from established franchises that Joshua has given heavy creative contributions to. For fans of Joshua’s work in the gaming space, there are collectibles such as signed copies of the Assassin’s Creed 2 script and the script for Outriders. Additionally Destiny enthusiasts can look forward to the release of the “dead ghost fragments,” the original micro-fiction that seeded the grimoire.
