The book is presented as a series of stories told by the gnomeShmebulock, who was cursed by a warlock to say only his own name, except for a brief period every thousand years when he is able to speak coherently in English. Claiming to be a fan of the Pines family, he accompanies the reader through four previously untold stories, before succumbing back to the curse again. At the end of the four stories, he claims there is a big secret in the book.
Face It[]
Pacifica comes by the Mystery Shack to request help from the Pines twins in getting rid of a wrinkle on her face before her family's annual photo shoot the day after. Dipper, who has been tasked with guarding the Journals while Ford runs an errand, refuses to let her read the Journals, as they are too dangerous to be used for something so trivial. Still determined, Pacifica sneaks upstairs to read the Journals under the guise of using the bathroom. She summons a monster, Mr. What's-His-Face, who promises her a "blemish-free" face, but before he can "help" her the twins walk in on them and Mabel has her face stolen in Pacifica’s place.
With the help of directions from Mabel’s disembodied face, Pacifica and Dipper set off to track down Mr. What's-His-Face into the The Crawlspace, an underground market for the paranormal residents of Gravity Falls during the day. To avoid being discovered as humans, they cover themselves in garbage and introduce themselves as Jackie the Elf Bandit and her servant, Troll Boy. While the guise initially works, Pacifica gets sidetracked and buys some beauty pills, leading to an argument between the two over Pacifica’s inability to accept her flaws, which accidentally reveals their species.
The two are then captured, auctioned off to an unknown buyer, and thrown into the buyer's burlap sack. While trapped in the sack, Pacifica reveals to Dipper that her family have taught her looks are extremely important and she is unsure who she really is without them. Dipper urges her to stop worrying about what others think of her and assures that she is "more than just a pretty face", having seen another side of her during the Northwest Mansion Mystery. Pacifica hugs Dipper before they themselves at Mr. What’s-His-Face’s base.
Dipper and Pacifica confront the monster and demand Mabel’s face back, but he takes Dipper’s face instead, gloating about having a compete set of twins now. He then forces Pacifica to choose between having an everlasting beautiful face or fighting him to get back the twins' faces, and after some hesitation she sets Mr. What’s-His-Face’s head on fire by tossing the explosive beauty pills at him. Mabel's face guides Dipper and Pacifica to an exit at the Shack’s outhouse, where Ford freezes the pursuing monster. He congratulates them on finding the Crawlspace and says he will be taking Mr. What’s-His-Face back to the bunker as a new specimen to study. Panicking briefly that she has little time to clean herself up, Pacifica decides not to care about looking perfect and attends the shoot covered in rubbish, much to her parents’ disgust.
As the story concludes, it cuts back to Shmebulock, who shows a series of intercepted texts between Pacifica and Mabel. Thinking she is texting Dipper, Pacifica asks him not to get the wrong idea about the hug, saying it was by accident. When Mabel reveals Dipper does not have a cell phone, Pacifica claims it was a prank text, and Mabel teases her about her crush on Dipper.
Comix Up[]
Soos brings a bunch of comic books to the Mystery Shack, livening up a slow day for Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy. However, Grunkle Stan says comics are a waste of time for losers and locks them away in Ford's cursed chest, unaware of its nature. This causes a malicious narration box to follow Stan around before he is trapped in a comic book when he refuses to show respect for the medium.
Dipper, Soos, Mabel, Ford and Wendy follow him into the cursed comic book, and enter a world of shifting art styles and genres. Encountering a purple-cloaked guy whom the group believes has knowledge of Stan's whereabouts, the group chases him across multiple worlds parodying various real-world comics such as Spy vs. Spy, Hellboy, and shoujo manga. Eventually, the characters encounter the superheroes the "Indestructi-Buddies", who attack them. Overwhelmed, Soos breaks the fourth wall and rewrites the narration box to give him and his friends superpowers. Defeating the Indestructi-Buddies, the group corners the cloaked guy. However, he sets off a bomb that sends everyone flying straight out of the story’s panels and into the margins.
While searching for the others, Soos finds a sobbing Stan in a comic whose style Soos does not recognize. Stan reveals that they are in his original comic Lil’ Stanley, which he drew in his childhood. However, his comic was turned down by publishers due to the excessive swear words in the comic and the fact that his plan for selling it was just a pyramid scheme. After that experience he gave up on comics, growing bitter towards the medium despite secretly still harboring positive feelings for it.
While Stan apologizes about his disdain for comics, he refuses to refer the comics as graphic novels. The narration box prepares to kill both Soos and Stan, but they are saved by Wendy, who cuts through the encroaching darkness with her ax, explaining that the comics are just paper and easy to cut. The narration box threatens to keep them trapped in the comic forever regardless of what they do, but Mabel takes out some white-out and erases the box, defeating it and rescuing the group from the cursed comic book.
After being saved, Stan is encouraged to fulfil his childhood dreams and releases copies of Lil’ Stanley to sell in the Mystery Shack’s gift shop. Initially nervous about how the comic will perform, Stan becomes delighted when a boy decides to buy a copy, after being enthralled by the comic for kids that has swear words in it.
Don't Dimension It[]
Dealing with the lingering effects from Weirdmageddon (including weird phone signals near Bill’s statue, miniature dimensional rifts, and a large chasm Dipper named "Mabel’s Fault"), the Pines family wanders through the forests of Gravity Falls to check for any dimensional rifts. Despite having reconciled, Stan and Ford continue to argue over who is the better guardian. Due to Mabel’s carelessness while retrieving her pig, Waddles, she doesn’t notice the rift behind her and is sucked into the multiverse.
She crashes through multiple dimensions, and after evading a giant hand monster in the Nightmare Realm, she lands in Dimension MAB-3L, a pocket dimension which lost Mabels of the multiverse are naturally drawn towards. While seeking a way to return home, Mabel becomes frustrated with the other Mabels' self-centeredness, as they are too preoccupied with their own interests to bother with the effort of escape. She meets another Mabel who resembles her and is equally determined to leave the dimension. Both work together, with Mabel distracting Military Expert Mabel so that the other Mabel can steal her flare gun and signal for help in the multiverse.
Meanwhile, Stan and Ford follow Mabel through the rift. Ford activates a beacon for help, summoning a space trucker who agrees to help them find Mabel, but only if Ford was cuffed at the back due to Ford's record as an interdimensional criminal. (Ford confesses to Stan that he stole various parts across the multiverse to build the Quantum destabilizer in an effort to stop Bill). The two Mabels manage to alert the Grunkles to their location using the flare, but Mabel is betrayed by the other Mabel who locks her in the outhouse. The other Mabel reveals herself to be Anti-Mabel, who was thrown out of her own dimension and intends to take over another Mabel's life and dimension. The Grunkles, unaware of the switch, picks up Anti-Mabel. Mabel escapes the outhouse and rallies the other Mabel's to help her defeat Anti-Mabel once she realizes the similarities in their actions to her own.
En route back to their dimension, Ford gets more suspicious of the Anti-Mabel, and tries to apprehend her when she requests weapons. Before he can, Anti-Mabel traps Stan and Ford using the alien adhesive and prepares to eject them via the airlock. Mabel and her other versions arrive in the nick of time to fight against the Anti-Mabel while rescuing Stan and Ford. Military Expert Mabel is mortally wounded in the fight. The Anti-Mabel manages to subdue most of the other Mabels using the adhesive, but Mabel uses her grappling hook to knock the glue gun out of her hands and the two begin a fistfight. Stan and Ford are unable to tell which is the real Mabel until Anti-Mabel’s sweater is pulled off to reveal a shirt underneath saying "I HATE CATS". The Pines ejects her into space and free the other Mabels, while using the alien adhesive to heal Military Expert Mabel’s wounds.
Dropping the Pines off at the rift leading back to their dimension, the other Mabels thank them for their help and tell them they plan to use the interdimensional truck to return to their respective homes. Stan and Ford admit that they are both horrible guardians, and Mabel tells them they should focus on taking care of each other instead. Upon their return, the Grunkles seal the rift while Dipper and Mabel reconcile over the events that transpired and over the duration of the summer. Mabel then gifts Dipper a blue journal with a pine tree on it she got from Mabipper (a Mabel who resembles a combination of the twins), which she hopes will be used to catalogue their new adventures together.
Pines Bros Mystery[]
This story is also known as The Pines Boys in: The Jersey Devil’s in the Details on its title page.
Sometime in the 1960s (or "1960-something"), young Stan and Ford are excited to spend the whole summer having adventures and working on their new boat, the Stan-O-War, but their dreams are quickly dashed when Stan is accused of stealing Filbrick's gold chain and told he will be grounded for the entire summer. Ford, wanting to spend time with Stan over the summer, defends Stan, saying that they've been together all day. They cut a deal with their father that if they can find the true culprit within 24 hours that will prove Stan’s innocence, but otherwise he will be grounded.
Ford analyzes the clues surrounding the crime scene and comes to the conclusion that the chain was stolen by the Jersey Devil, and the two boys set off in search of the cryptid. While stocking up on adventuring supplies they discover Shanklin the Stab Possum, a possum Stan ties a knife to and allows to nest in his pants. They also meet the Sibling Brothers, snooty mystery-solvers who do not appreciate the freakish Pines brothers encroaching on their territory and tell them as much. After being insulted, Stan and Ford head down to the carnival to look for more clues, where they are at first rebuffed by the circus freaks until Ford shows them his own six fingers, whereupon they allow the boys to view a map of the Jersey Devil’s hideout tattooed onto the back of one of the performers.
This leads them to the nearby lighthouse, but they aren’t allowed inside to investigate further due to Stan’s delinquent reputation. To make matters worse, they discover the Siblings Brothers are also on the same trail as them, and the combination makes Stan so angry that he accidentally pushes the brothers off a sand dune. Believing them to be dead, the Pines decide to make the best of it and steal their clothes to impersonate them. They succeed and discover the path to the Jersey Devil’s cave.
As they are exploring the cave, Shanklin escapes Stan’s pants and runs off with their flashlight and Stan runs after him, leaving Ford alone in the dark. There, he is discovered by the bedraggled and angry, but alive, Sibling Brothers, who present him with photographic proof that Stan is the one who stole the chain all along. Ford, who had just told Stan he was a good kid at heart and covered for him in front of their father, is saddened and confused why Stan would do such a thing and then lie to him about it. The Sibling Brothers tell Ford the Jersey Devil isn’t real and Stan used it to cover for his crimes, immediately before Stan returns with the flashlight, Shanklin, and the Jersey Devil.
All four boys flee, but when Stan and Ford make it to safety Ford demands to know the reasons behind Stan’s actions. Stan tearfully confesses that he did take the gold chain, but only because he wanted to customize it for Father’s Day in the hopes of earning their dad’s approval for once, and he panicked when he accidentally broke the glass. Before Ford can reply, the Jersey Devil shows up again, but is captured by the Sibling Brothers, who give Ford the chance of taking credit for finding the monster if he gives them the pictures of Stan stealing the chain back so they can collect the reward—otherwise, they’ll frame both Pines twins for the theft. Ford allows Shanklin to attack the brothers and also free the Jersey Devil rather than betray his own brother, and after the humiliated Sibling Brothers call them freaks they are set upon by the circus folk as Stan and Ford head home. They are then grounded for the summer, but they find it isn’t so bad as they have each other.
The story ends with a shot of present-day Stan and Ford on the Stan-O-War II preparing to set sail, and a short ballad detailing some of their misadventures on the seas.
B&N Edition[]
Book signing at Barnes and Noble
Released alongside the regular edition, the Barnes & Noble version of Lost Legends had 16 extra pages that were part of a bonus chapter titled Soos's Comic Corner. Narrated by Soos, the pages consisted of behind the scenes sketches and notes, detailing and exploring secrets within them.[8] Alex Hirsch himself also signed early copies of it during a signing event held at Barnes & Noble The Grove on the release day in 2018.[9]
As of 2023, this version of the book has been discontinued and no longer sold at Barnes & Noble.
The finger monster that attacks Mabel in the Nightmare Realm resembles the description of the "60-foot ball of fingers and teeth" that Bill sicced on Ford when he first arrived in there which is mentioned in Journal 3.
The interdimensional trucker brings up Ford's criminal record across the multiverse as described in Journal 3.
One of the dimensions that the trucker brings up is Lottocron Nine, which is where Ford got his infinity-sided die.
The trucker also has a pair of fuzzy infinity-sided dice hanging from his rear-view mirror.
The pine tree journal that Mabel gives to Dipper, which she got from an alternate version of herself called Mabipper, resembles the one that Dipper mentions in Journal 3.
"Pines Bros Mystery/Jersey Devil's in the Details."[]
Some of the items seen in the Pines Pawns shop include Stan's fez, the painting hanging in the attic of the Mystery Shack, and the scuba helmet in the shack's gift shop.
A ticket stub from Grandpa the Kid can be seen in Stanley's old scrapbook.
Lost Legends was originally listed as XQWLWOHG PBVWHUB ERRN (which decodes to UNTITLED MYSTERY BOOK using the Caesar cipher) on Amazon Canada and Chapters Indigo a few days before it was formally announced at D23.[10]
The Indigo listing also informed fans of the books official release date a year before and of how many pages were in it.
The front cover was revealed via a jigsaw puzzle, made of pine trees (the same style as seen on Dipper's hat), piece by piece on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.[2]
Lost Legends Cover changes
Lost Legends underwent 2 cover changes before the final cover was revealed after Puzzling Pines.
Signed promo card given to attendees of the Lost Legends booth at the 2018 SDCC
At the 2018 San Diego Comic Con, Alex Hirsch and Dana Terrace signed copies for fans who also received a custom promo card with an original comic made by Serina Hernandez.
The book contains a secret code that leads to the secret site: The Shmeb you unlocked, which contains more information on various characters and small comics.
In one of the small comics what Dipper says can be decoded and comes out as "Cipher Lives", which is most likely a reference to the possible return of Bill Cipher.
It also reveals that his mother's name is Emma-May Dixon, formerly Emma-May McGucket.
Shortly after its release, Lost Legends became a New York Times Bestseller, making it the second Gravity Falls book to do so after Journal 3.
2018 version of Lost Legends compared to a post bestseller version
In later releases since, the book states it is a bestseller on the top of it, resulting in the show logo being smaller.
The comic contains several suggestive elements that were not permitted in the TV series. Among these are:
The use of more explicit words like "Hell" or God's name in vain in phrases such as "Oh my God", and some censored swearing.
Direct references to alcohol.
More suggestive themes, such as a character wearing a shirt with the semi-vulgar phrase "That's what she said" on it.
More direct cultural references, such as direct mentions of the comic character Marmaduke and the comic artist Stan Lee and a cameo from the pop culture character Slender Man. Stan also mentions that he also got into a fistfight with Stan Lee in 1973.
The comic contains some references to the Gravity Falls fandom.
In the background of Schmebulock's library, there's a board reading "Shermie?", under which it says in cipher "age paradox?" and "time travel conspiracy?" which is in reference to the confusion about the baby in "A Tale of Two Stans" and its debate on the identity as Shermie due to the timeline.
There's also a fourth journal in the library under Dipper's original hat. Referencing the idea that there are more than 3 journals.
In Journal 1 there is a page on "Paranormal Rashes", and depicts a rash that looks like Bill and is called, "Zodiacne". This is in reference to fan art depicting an adult Dipper having a tattoo of the Zodiac. Which was disproven by Hirsch himself when he said that Mabel is the most likely to get a tattoo. Which was also referenced in "Don't Dimension It" by Military Expert Mabel's 6-18 tattoo.
Stanbel in "Don't Dimension It" originated as a drawing on Hirsch's twitter and was jokingly drawn to "give you nightmares".
In "Comix Up", when Soos is in the margins, he sees the Disney label and notes how the stylized "D" looks like a "G".
In "Face It" a creature resembling Slender Man makes an appearance trying to find money to buy Dipper and Pacifica. This is a reference to the urban legend that Slender Man appeared in "The Legend of the Gobblewonker" when it was really a result of Photoshop.
All known variants of the changes to the Slender Man creature compared with how he originally looked.
In some of the foreign releases, the creature that resembles Slender Man, was altered. Four known versions of altering are known to exist; some versions, including later North American releases recolor the suit red, remove his tentacles and give him a mouth. In other versions, the suit color is a darker shade of red. Hebrew and Brazilian Portuguese show the creature with a nose and stiches around where his eyes would be. It's possible these changes occurred due to copyright issues in certain foreign countries, lack of knowledge of Slender Man beyond North America, and the fact the character is not in the public domain.
On one of the first pages of the book, there is a code in Caesar cipher that when decoded states, "A fandom's work is never done/So here's some tales just for fun/You wanted more?/You got your wish!/Don't stress—it's only canon-ish." This has been interpreted by many as possibly hinting that the stories in lost Legends are not to be taken seriously and that fans can decide for themselves whether or not a story in the book is canon to the show or not.
Serina Hernandez (kiki-kit) and Priscilla Tang (pitopishi) were the two fan artists selected by Alex Hirsch to contribute to Lost Legends.
Serina did the drawing and inking for Don't Dimension It as well as promotional material for the book.[11][12]
Priscilla did the the illustrations for Face It and Manga page for “Comix” up. [13][14][15][16]
Chronologically, the four stories in Lost Legends occur as follows:
Pine Bros Mystery takes place in the early-to-mid 1960s, during Stan and Ford's childhood, around 50 years before the main events of Gravity Falls in the summer of 2012.
Face It and Comix Up both take place in the second half of Season 2, sometime among the episodes set between "A Tale of Two Stans" (sometime in August 2012) and "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" (August 22nd), as evidenced by Ford being present, whilst Weirdmageddon has yet to begin. The exact order or placement of the two stories in this time is unclear, though.
Don't Dimension It takes place during the final act of the episode "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls," in the week between Weirdmageddon ending (August 25th) and Dipper and Mabel's 13th birthday (August 31st), as noted by a direct mention of the preceding event.
In the story "Face It" a former member of the Blind Eye Society is seen selling memory canisters belonging to various characters from the show.
Next to Gideon's canister, there is a tube labelled "Memories Rick S." This is likely a reference to Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty who was played by Justin Roiland.
There is also a canister labelled "Mrs. Corduroy," which most likely refers to Wendy Corduroy's unseen mother.
Also in "Face It", Toby Determined, wearing his Blind Eye robe, is seen buying faces from Mr. What's-His-Face to "finally have a face with a chin". But on the latter's bag, the face of Blind Ivan is attached, with "BUTTS" written on his head instead of "Knowledge". Knowing the book takes place after Society of the Blind Eye, Toby couldn't have been a Blind Eye member, as all the members had their memory erased at the end of said episode, resulting in an inconsistency (however it could be assumed that Toby rediscovered the robe in some other circumstance, and was merely using it as a disguise).
A version of Mabel resembling the character Morty from the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty is seen in the background of "Don’t Dimension It." In the Rick and Morty mobile game, "Pocket Mortys," there is a Morty who resembles Mabel Pines named "Girl Morty," who is very similar in appearance to the "Morty Mabel" seen in Lost Legends.
In "Face It", there is a face in Mr. What's-His-Face that closely resembles the screaming character from famous artist Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream."
In "Face It", Pacifica lies that her name is "Jackie the Elf-Bandit" to decrease the attention from what appears to be an ogre. This name may be a reference to the person who voices Pacifica, Jackie Buscarino.
In "Face It", the journal Mabel is reading shows a page that is titled, "Defense of the Dark Warts", most likely a reference to Harry Potter, as Harry has a class named "Defense Against the Dark Arts". As below it is two words saying, "Expecto Psoriasis" likely derived from Harry's spell to defend against dementors, "Expecto Patronum".
Another reference to Harry Potter may be that in the dimension MAB-3L, there is a Mabel standing with their back to the viewer (above the Mabel that looks like Pac-Man) with the Hogwart's House, Gryffinfor's, colors (red and gold). In the Barnes & Nobel edition, it is stated that that Mabel's name is Gryffindabel.
In "Face It", a face that looks a lot like Morty from Rick and Morty appears on Mr. What's-His-Face's wall.
In "Face It", there are several references to the Disney Channel series The Owl House. This can be attributed to the fact Dana Terrace is the show's creator and worked on Lost Legends, because Alex Hirsch works on the show too and due to the fact the show had only just been greenlit in 2018 alongside Amphibia (there are no known references to Amphibia in Lost Legends however).
There is a wanted poster with the silhouette of the character Eda in it. Eda's staff can be seen in the backgrounds of the crawlspace.
While initially noticed by several fans in 2018, these references gained a lot more attention in 2020 after The Owl House had premiered and its fanbase began to grow and understand the references better.
In Journal 1, there's a page about the "Boiling Isles", which is where the events of The Owl House take place.
During "Comix Up", on the first panel of the Grimdark Chronicles section, symbols on the gravestones translate to "BILL LIVES" using Bill's Substitution Cipher.
"Don't Dimension It" contains a monster that looks like Cthulhu saying "PH'NGLUI MGLW'NAFH". While this looks like a cryptogram, it is not; this is in fact the beginning of the phrase "Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl Fhtagn." This phrase is generally translated as "In his house, dead Cthulhu of R'lyeh waits dreaming."[17]
Several of the alternate Mabels in "Don't Dimension It" are references to other media.
There is a Mabel that looks like Marty McFly from Back to the Future.
There is a Mabel that looks like Waldo from Where's Waldo.
