Emmy-winning writer Joshua Rubin, best known for his work on Assassin’s Creed II, Destiny, and Telltale’s The Walking Dead, has recently launched Strange Land Comics, “a boutique IP-house dedicated to high-concept, mind-bending, brain-candy sci-fi.” The new publisher plans on offering “genre fiction for grownups,” with elevated tales filled with action, emotion, and plenty of plot twists.
Launching on Kickstarter this week is Strange Land’s flagship title, Time Sensitive, an existential sci-fi thriller. Read details here:
When Detective Caleb Stone’s wife vanishes at a Los Angeles gas station — so does every trace of their life together. Now, his only hope lies in a mysterious teenage girl who claims she knows why his wife was deleted.
The creative team consists of Rubin alongside artist Jorge Coelho (Marvel, Image, BOOM!), colorist Kay Woolhiser (A. Guardian, Dragon Grit, The Knight and the Lion), and letterer Micah Meyers (DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Mad Cave).
The Beat chatted with Rubin about the new title.
DEANNA DESTITO: How did you come up with Time Sensitive?
JOSHUA RUBIN: I’ve been obsessed with time travel stories since I was a kid — the ones that break your brain a little but still hit you in the gut. The spark for Time Sensitive came from asking: what if time travel wasn’t an adventure, but an affliction? What if, instead of bouncing around in a cool DeLorean, your memories kept rewriting themselves — and suddenly, people, places, whole parts of your life were gone, and everyone you knew insisted they never existed?
DESTITO: How was writing this different from your other work, especially video game work?
RUBIN: Games are collaborative by design — every scene you write has to survive input from designers, combat systems, level layouts, you name it. Comics are leaner and more personal. It’s just words and images — and if you’re lucky, an artist like Jorge who can take your wildest ideas and elevate them. For me, comics are pure story. Nobody’s going to cut a scene because “your AI squadmate keeps getting stuck running into a wall.”
DESTITO: How was it working with this creative team?
RUBIN: Dream team. Jorge Coelho’s linework is electric! The emotion in his characters is so deep, and just wait until you see the worldbuilding he’s doing in Issue #2. He actually just won Portugal’s prestigious Amadora BD award for Best Comic with his adaptation of Great Gatsby, and I can’t believe he agreed to do my time travel comic as a follow up. Then Kay Woolhiser brings this painterly, cinematic depth with her colors, and Micah Meyers is a total pro on letters, finding just the right rhythm on the page. It’s been mind-blowing to watch the whole team turn my words into something bigger than I imagined.
DESTITO: Time travel can get complicated and messy. How did you plot and plan the narrative to keep it coherent?
RUBIN: The trick was always to keep it human. Yes, I mapped out timelines and rippling cause-and-effect across decades, but at the end of the day it’s not about the paradoxes, it’s about Caleb and Sara trying to hold onto each other while reality slips out from under them. So I anchored every twist in the emotional truth: how does this moment feel? What does it do to trust, to love, to grief? If the characters’ emotions stay honest, the reader will follow even when the rules of time get wibbly-wobbly.
DESTITO: Any teasers you want to share?
RUBIN: I’ll just say this: the first issue pulls the rug out from under both Caleb and the reader. You think you understand what’s happening… and then you don’t. Luckily, Issue #2 of this six-issue limited series is already in production! Also, we’ve put together some wild rewards for Kickstarter backers: frame-worthy giclée prints of Jorge’s art, original inked pages, and treasures from my video game vault, including — never published before — the original seeds of what would grow into The Grimoire fans know and love.
Check out a few preview pages below!
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