The Disney animated series Gravity Falls has quickly become a cult classic, even though it only aired for two seasons. The animated adventure show was wholly unique from the rest of Disney's typical content that stands as a fan-favorite classic of the modern animation age.
Although the show ended four years ago, there are still plenty of stories waiting to be told in the world of Gravity Falls, and comics are the perfect place for those stories to be told.
WHAT WAS GRAVITY FALLS?
Gravity Falls centers around Dipper and Mable Pines, 12-year old twins who were sent to the backwoods of Oregon to spend the summer with their Great Uncle Stan, a former conman who now runs a cheesy roadside attraction called The Mystery Shack. But upon discovering a mysterious journal in the woods, Dipper ends up uncovering many of the supernatural elements that are hiding just under the surface of the sleepy North Pacific town. Alongside an eager Mable, a seemingly skeptical Stan, and the Mystery Shack's only two employees -- the loveable goofball Soos and the cool, collected Wendy -- Dipper sets out to find out more about the town and the mysterious author who wrote the journal in the first place.
While the series initially played out as a series of largely unconnected adventures, an overarching narrative was eventually introduced, centering around the other-worldly demon known only as Bill Cipher. Essentially a cruel trickster god, Bill had been quietly trying to affect events behind the scenes for decades, trying to find a way to bridge the gap between Earth and his Nightmare Dimension. This included targeting Stanford, a genius inventor and Stan's twin brother, who ended up trapped outside of reality.
Once Stan finally figured out how to reopen a gate and rescue his brother, this gave Bill his opening. The entire town of Gravity Falls was forced to come together to prevent Bill from influencing the rest of the Earth, and eventually even figured out how to kill him, by trapping him in Stan's mind as it was being erased. The series ended with Dipper and Mable leaving town to return to the West Coast, promising to return next summer.
COULD GRAVITY FALLS COME TO COMICS?
There has already been one original Gravity Falls spin-off comic. Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, an anthology comic released in 2018. Written by series creator Alex Hirsch and illustrated by a number of different artists, the story opened by focusing on Shmebulock. As one of the Gnomes who lived in Gravity Falls and a frequent gag character throughout the series, Shmebulock could only typically say his own name. But it's revealed that once every thousand years, a curse is lifted that allows him to speak. Shmebulock reveals four stories about the Pines family in an anthology, with three of them taking place before the events of the series finale -- although one of the tales, "Don't Dimension It" happens shortly after the defeat of Bill Cipher but before Dipper and Mable leave town.
Each of the stories contains a lot of the same sense of humor and charm that helped make the original series feel so special, and they prove that those things translate incredibly well to the comics format. One of the stories in particular, "Comix Up" served as an extended and loving parody of various genres of comic books, including light-hearted riffs on everything from manga to Mike Mignola. The comics reveal there's still plenty of room to explore the Gravity Falls universe, especially the characters. The first story in the anthology, "Face Off," even teases out more of the potential for a brewing romance between Dipper and the snobbish but good-at-heart Pacifica, proving that the comics are more than willing to let the characters grow in new interesting ways.
The comic could be similar to Lost Adventures, fleshing out more storylines from the established Gravity Falls universe, or it could even be a fully realized sequel. There are even some minor plot beats that were teased that could come up any follow-up story, such as the potential return of Bill Cipher that's hinted at in his final moments. It would all lend itself well to a comic series, similar to how other acclaimed cartoons like Steven Universe, Adventure Time, and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic have all continued their shows in comic.
Gravity Falls built one of the most impressive worlds in animation, and it's the kind of world that could continue to flourish on the comics page, even if the show that birthed it has ended.