Let’s Obsess for a Sec…
Ok, so I basically took the entire month of August off. The post for the last week of July ended up being a much bigger concept than I planned and then I spent the majority of August just drawing!
Before a flight last month to the PNW, I happened upon the newly released Gravity Falls graphic novel, “The Book of Bill”, in the airport convenience store. “The Book of Bill” is told from the perspective of the show’s main villain, Bill Cipher, and claims to be dropped directly from the GF universe into ours!
I spent my entire flight stifling laughter and trying not to wake my mom up every time I found a funny reference. Because dear GOD, there were funny references! At least for the first half…Once it got into the whole backstory of Bill and the missing journal pages, it got surprisingly sad. Getting emo over an evil triangle from a 2010’s animated Disney series was not even remotely on my BINGO card this year. The work that went into this book (and its companion website, thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com) is truly incredible. Alex Hirsch and his team are truly gifts from…well, I don’t know who but definitely not god. The sheer volume of lore and fun facts that these folks shoved into the book and website just blew my mind. For a long-time Gravity Falls fan like myself, it was *chef’s kiss*.
I made stickerrrrssss, naturally!
I spent the rest of August (and beginning of September) just completely and totally captivated by the content of the book and website. I blame the good nerds of TikTok and r/GravityFalls for sustaining this obsession as well. People are just so damn creative and funny! But I’m pretty sure right now I’m at like stage 8 of my patented “9 Stages of Media Obsession”. Oh you haven’t heard of my “9 Stages of Media Obsession”???
*Ahem* allow me to introduce you…
* For reference, “Property” is my stand in for whatever it is that I’m obsessing over. This can include, but is certainly not limited to, a book, a TV show, a movie/franchise, a fictional character, a person and/or a band.
The Initial introduction: I am introduced to property. Can be through watching a movie, reading a book, hearing a song etc.
Mild Interest: I’m somewhat taken by property for some odd reason. I can’t put my finger on it but there’s just something about it that I like.
Research: I look up information surrounding property, what it might be about, who made it, art, lore, story, history, etc.
Media Binge: I watch anything and everything related to property. Interviews, TikTok’s, show episodes, movies, clips, music videos etc.
The Creator Stage: I start saving a bunch of photos related to property to my phone so I can draw it. I then proceed to draw a bunch of fanart. If I feel particularly strong about property, I’ll even cosplay as something/someone from it.
The Prophet Era: I tell others about property, to watch it, to check it out, ask if they know about it. Literally finding any excuse to talk about it.
Playlisting: I dedicate a playlist on my Spotify to property. They usually contain songs that reminds me of property, are used directly in property or were heard in TikTok videos at some point.
Peak Saturation: All resources are exhausted, I’ve learned all there is to know about property. The obsession looses steam.
The Appreciative Onlooker: The iron grip that property has on me wears off. The fire may fade but it’s not like I just completely stop loving it! It just no longer has that all encompassing obsessive feeling around it.
Below is a (mostly) comprehensive list of everything that I have “obsessed” over in the past 10 or so years (in timeline order):
Supernatural
Castiel was my halloween costume in 2015 when I was in high school, I kept getting mistaken for the 10th Doctor
Watched Superbad in my dorm to comfort myself after crying over the series finale
Homestuck
Me and my best friend in high school would role-play as our favorite characters over Facebook Messenger after school
Dark times haha
Panic! At the Disco
The death grip this music had on me when I was 16
My high school graduation gift was flying to NYC to see Brendon Urie in Kinky Boots
Final Space
Only the first season
My fan playlist received over 9k saves on Spotify and the band Crash Adams attributes their current success to me placing their first song onto it.
Umbrella Academy
Only the first two seasons
Cosplayed as Five in February ‘19
Anomalied
It’s my own property but IDC it still counts
Cut my hair in ‘21 so I could use myself as a drawing reference for my main character
Me and My Shadow
Yes, the unreleased Dreamworks movie
I think about it at least once a month
Invader Zim
I’ve loved it since I was 10 years old, but when “Enter the Florpus” came out when I was 20, ho boy
I carry my Aspirin and Pepto Bismol tablets in a Gir coin purse to this day
Moomin
I learned how to play the harmonica because of the show
Cosplayed as Snufkin in March ‘20
Arcane
Physically cannot wait for season 2 to come out in November
Heavily considered dying my hair blue that year
The Winter Soldier
And by proxy, Sebastian Stan. I watched every movie that man was in…
Cosplayed as the WS in December ‘21
Daredevil
Both the series and the character…but mostly the character
Cosplayed as a fem version of DD in July ‘22
Moon Knight
This show made me cry at work
Cosplayed as Khonshu in August ‘22
Bluey
Cannot watch “Sleepytime” without crying
Genuinely helped me more than therapy
Project Hail Mary
I can’t believe I cried about a rock
Cosplayed as Rocky and Ryland Grace with my mom in March ‘24
And now Gravity Falls can officially be inducted into the
“Shelby Obsession Hall of Fame”.
Congrats, here’s your playlist, fan art, plans for a cosplay and a piece of whatever is left of my sanity.
And ok, ok, I know I’ve been goofing on these “obsessions” but really, they’re just things that spark my creative center to an extreme degree. They burn hot and fast and leave a scorch mark on me for the rest of my life. Some of those scorch marks come in tattoo form! (…Thank god I couldn’t get tattoos when I was 14).
To make a little callback to Gravity Falls, these properties are my “muses”! Just like the goddesses of Ancient Greece, “muses” inspire me to create and learn something new! I always find new music when making fan playlists and I learned how to sew and work with foam because of the costumes! My art is better when I’m fueled by something fun (see my blog post “From the Seat of a Train” for more about passion driven art!) and let’s not even mention the business opportunities that open up to you!
I was yapping to my brother recently about Gravity Falls and how I sound insane talking about it so much and it ended like this:
It is lovely! I’m grateful for it! How lame would life be if every now and then, you didn’t have something to go absolutely wild over! To love something so much that you simply can’t get your mind off of it! How boring that would be. And so what, you look a little crazy for a while. If they can’t love me at peak “Musing” then they don’t deserve me, period! My mom always tells me that life’s too short to be embarrassed by things. Live your life.
So go forth and find a “muse” of your own!