The Gothickingcobra52 saga marks Josh's first foray into content creation, and features his early content such as his first three albums, his “Guitar insites” and the Punishment Haircut. The saga officially starts on June 13th, 2010 and ends July 19th, 2011, followed by the Job Corp Saga.

• A young Josh Saunders: This is the very beginning of the madness. Joshua Fay Saunders, a short-haired, rebellious teenager with a troubled upbringing and a whole load of angst. He would take up smoking soon, and alcohol later on. His hair would remain short for the majority of the time in this saga due to constant “Punishment haircuts” by his father, Clint Saunders.

Josh first appears on YouTube under the name “gothickingcobra52” on June 13th, 2010. He refers to himself simply as “Gothic King Cobra”, describing himself as a “sexy gothic musician who enjoys playing electric guitar and singing” who “[hopes] to be a famous musician one day when I get my first cd done”. At this point, Josh has recently graduated high school and lives with his parents. He begins to upload videos discussing current events, his beliefs, and his music. He has a middle-parted bowl cut and the Norwood Reaper has yet to rear its bald head at this stage.

Josh gets in his routine of making daily videos, referring to his viewers as “YouTube”, and starts to take the shape of the YouTube personality as seen today. Many of Josh's earlier videos are part of a series titled “Guitar Insight”, where he explains his guitar methods and techniques while “speaking his mind” on “stupid random shit that pisses [me] off”. The majority of this content is Josh going off on various subjects including social taboos, boy bands he deemed homosexual in nature, and similar rants before ending by randomly strumming on his guitar, showing off his supposed musical prowess.

At some point during this era, Josh has brief stints working at the local Burger King, as well as a pizza restaurant. He has provided minimal detail about these two jobs. Following a video where Josh complained about the hours he got working at Burger King, a co-worker showed the video to Cobes' manager, forcing Josh to make what may have been Youtube's first apology video.

During this time, Josh debuts his first album - Blood Cemetery - Which he had to cut down from the initial twenty songs, additionally redoing a number because he lost a few of the songs. This is also the advent of what would become Josh's most well-known handle: KingCobraJFS. Combining his favorite animal with his initials, the name would cement itself as part of his legacy for years to come. Attempting to break into the music business, Josh would send a copy of his CD to Simmons Records, but to no response. Josh would continue to work on his musical ability by adding vocal covers to his repertoire, starting with Papa Roach's “Forever”.

While still under the Gothickingcobra52 moniker, Josh also introduces his ventriloquist dummy Shon during this time as a part of his comedy skit series titles “Shon and Saunders”. Shon is a Charlie McCarthy puppet that he received as a gift during childhood from his parents that Josh would give a gothic coat of paint to make him more creepy. Shon would feature as a recurring character in his early videos, seemingly as a way to critique his own actions.

In January 2011, Josh's second album Darken Days would be released on iTunes, to lukewarm reception. The album features tracks about how much he hates his biological mother, The Holocaust, and a coven of Satanic stoners. Not long after this he would announce his work on his next musical project The Highway of Life while at the same time applying to the Boxelder Job Corps in Utah, likely being helped(or pressured into it) by his dad. Josh would eventually come round to the idea of going, citing that it would be a good way to earn a living “until [his] music career took off”.

Josh's first big break in youtube came in the form of his semi-viral video, “F**K the mainstream”. The video would entail a long-winded rant about the mainstream making everything “trendy”, lamenting that even becoming anti-authority would eventually become trendy. Josh would go on to say that he's a “real goth” unlike the numerous “mall goths” that are only using the aesthetic “to piss off their parents and say 'fuck society' […] and have no core goth beliefs”. More importantly, Josh would debut the Gothic Clocktower Dream House by means of a pencil-and-paper sketch. This would be the first introduction of Cobra's Magic to a larger crowd, and many would attribute this video as the start of their interest in the Boglim to-be.

In a video out of the blue, Josh would admit to stalking and sexually harassing a girl he liked during high school, expressing regret for his actions. He would attempt to apologize over facebook, but would get blocked before he could deliver the message. This would also be one of the first times Josh would say he had Asperger's Syndrome.

Much like the early days of Black Sabbath, Joshua's early foray into Youtube would be rife with controversy and struggle. It is in this crucible of strife that the boglim phoenix would rise from the ashes like a half-dead cobra from a crushed egg, howling at inanimate objects and drinking until he passed out, hair follicles be damned.