KyFx Content Creature Feature  

 “I want that to be the number one message behind my content—representation matters.”

Xero G.

Meet Xero Gravity!

Horror Cosplayer , Writer , and Content Creator!

by Kyasia Fields on October 04

Xero Gravity is a New York-based lifestyle content creator, writer, public speaker, and walking pop culture dictionary. Xero is dedicated to the Horror & sci-fi realms and doesn’t scare easily.  We got the chance to discuss the importance of representation in “blerd” culture , the lasting impact of Black Panther , and a few of her favorite Horror animes. See full interview below. 

When did you start cosplaying, and what was your inspiration behind it? 

I started cosplaying in 2011, and I started because a friend of mine’s parents had extra passes to Comic-Con (I’m from New York, by the way). My friends like, “Hey, my parents have this extra comic-con pass,” and I’m like, “sweet, I’ve never been to a comic con before.” I was at the peak of my The Walking Dead interest at that time and that season Michonne had just been introduced to the show , and I was super excited because I had been reading the comics for forever so I knew exactly who was coming . I was hype, so I decided that since people dress up when they go to comic-con, I’m going to dress up as Michonne . I went to a local nursery of mine and got a ton of potato sacks. I ripped them up and glued them together to make her cape that she wears. Went to party city and got some plastic katanas the morning before and just covered myself in fake blood. Everybody at the Comic-Con knew who I was . It was like this totally mediocre “not great” first cosplay ever, but there were a ton of Walking Dead fans in there because it was popular during that time. I would go down the escalator, and people would be like, “Oh, it’s Michonne,” and I thought that was the craziest thing that she hadn’t even been shown yet, so I’m like “I know you’re a nerd like I’m a nerd.” It was the first opportunity I had to meet with other nerds outside of where I went to high school or my friend group. It really was a crazy experience , I really wasn’t expecting to get that much attention in that way . The attention was great but the fact that the attention was from people that I knew were fans of the show was even better. So I bought my tickets for the next year and I’ve been going ever since. Of course, I’ve branched out of comic-con, and I’ve traveled to other cons in different states, but that’s how I got my start. 

What sparked your interest in Horror? 

Well, my number one is Zombies. I love zombies. I love good zombie movies; I love bad zombie movies. I like zombie games. I read a lot of zombie novels. Walking Dead is definitely up there as one of my favorites. 28 Days Later is a very close second. The list from there is just totally scrambled. Zombies are definitely my number one fandom. In Horror specifically, I like a good creature feature. I like monster movies. In addition to Horror, I like SciFi a lot as well. I feel like monster movies, and creature features are a perfect blend of my two favorite genres. I don’t want to ruffle anyone’s feathers out there, but I like slashes. I’m just not crazy about them. Slashes are the one subgenre of Horror that I don’t connect with much. Of course I’ve seen all the Nightmare on Elm Streets and Halloween, and they are definitely classics for what they are, but I’m more of a Cronenberg gal. I want to see some gross, disgusting monsters and aliens. 

If you had to pick between 70’s and 80’s Horror, Which genre would you choose and why? 

I am picking 80’s Horror because that’s the time when “cheese” (and I could be wrong) but I think that 80’s Horror was when directors and producers started implementing “cheese” as a gimmick. The films would end up cheesy because that’s just how it played out. Over time, they started to figure out that’s what people liked, so let’s throw more of that in there. Even today, with new films, when they throw a reasonable amount of cheese in there, you know, I fuck with it. I think it creates a good break from the scariness. Comedy and Horror are somewhat one and the same, so when you add the corniness in there it becomes cool. It’s like you know 80’s Horror will be cheesy, but that’s because it’s supposed to be that way. After all, that’s what you get when you dive into films like that. I think I see more 80’s Horror than 70’s Horror for that reason because you know the cheese is alright by me. 

You post fantastic Horror collectibles on your page. When did you start collecting? 

I’ve been a pretty nasty collector for like my whole life. I started with comics. I read a lot of Goosebumps, and I feel like I inherited the trait from my father. My father collects also, but he is a music buff. He loves The Beatles and vintage records. I would watch him as we would go to the record store when I was young while he would sift through the records, and it evolved to me going to the comic shop and doing the same with comics. He was really a terrible influence because if I had one comic from a series, I have to get the whole series.

I can vividly remember my dad having me on the back of his bike, and we would bike around Manhattan going to different Mcdonalds because I had to complete the Happy Meal Set for all of the figures that came together. I had to get all of the Mcdonalds exclusives. I think it exploded for me in middle school when I started to get more into Horror. Middle Schoolers tend to spend a lot of time and money at the mall. I have a hard time getting rid of things too. I find sentimental value in everything. It might become a problem, but I’m not worried about it right now. You know, it makes me happy, all of my figures and my posters make me very happy; it might look crazy to a lot of people that I have this corner in my room dedicated to The Walking Dead and another corner for Storm in X-Men. Still, at the end of the day, I come home from work and look at how they are placed so neatly, and it makes me proud. So it can’t be that bad. I have no plans to stop anytime soon. 

I’ve seen many of your cosplay looks on Instagram from Harley Quinn to Tiffany from The Bride of Chucky. What has been your favorite look that you’ve created thus far?

Hellboy, I have archived a lot of those posts because I just finished my rebrand. I used to market myself as a dark arts cosplayer, but I feel like there was an expiration to that; I feel like I had more to offer than just my cosplays. I found that I was trying to pump out random cosplays just to put out content and not because I like these characters, so I was like, “hold on, let me just backtrack and remarket myself the way I want to be marketed.” I’m planning on reposting the Hellboy photos soon. I identify a lot with Hellboy. He was summoned by Rasputin in the height of Nazi Germany when the Nazis were not having a good time and it seemed like the regime was about to end, so Rasputin calls in the big dogs, and they decide to conjure a demon from Hell which ends of being Hellboy. The United States infiltrates in the middle of the conjuring and stops it, but Hellboy has already been summoned and is here on earth.

Professor Broom adopts Hellboy, and he becomes his son. Hellboy has this life perspective that I think all Black Nerds can identify with. I mean, he is a demon, straight up, like he came from Hell, but he was raised as a human because when he was summoned, he was a baby. Just like the Black nerd, a lot of times people will try to (for a lack of better words) “take our Black card away” because we like these things and it’s not a “typical Black thing” to be into comics or dive into 70’s Horror and a lot of times we get the side-eye. It’s been more progressive these days but I think a lot of us can identify with that. We look and are one way, but we look and feel another way, and it is this back and forth. The comics are just also badass, especially with him being an investigator. Hellboy is my number one escape next to The Walking Dead, so I decided to cosplay Hellboy three years ago when word of the reboot surfaced. I won the lottery at New York comic con to attend the panel to see Ron Perlman , the rest of the cast, and Guillermo del Toro discuss the history of Hellboy so I’m like, “Oh, this my chance to cosplay him.” That was the only time that I cosplayed Hellboy because red paint is a mess. It was a great experience cosplaying him. It was a really proud moment for me. I like those photos. They feel genuine to the character. I think I did a really good job embodying what I would look like if I were Hellboy. Other people liked it too, and it makes me really happy seeing those photos so that would have to be my favorite. 

What is your favorite Horror anime? 

Well Devilman Crybaby was art. It was a beautiful anime. I love the art style and the emotions. I also really love Parasyte. Death Note is a classic too. I might get crucified for putting this in the universe, but it’s not my favorite. I was kind of over it. It’s not as scary because we are used to Horror and it’s more of a dark anime, but sure I’ll throw that one up there. I think the Corpse Party is also really good. I love all of the Junji Ito adaptations only because they are Junji Ito adaptations and not because they are good anime. He is a Horror Manga artist. His work is phenomenal, and I’m really happy because he is just getting his claim to fame within the last couple of years. I started reading his manga on Tumblr when I was in middle school, and I would binge it. It’s fucking crazy. There was this one called “Gyo,” and it translates to “the death stench,” and it’s basically about a parasite that infects the ocean. It grabs a hold of fish, and the fish grow legs and start walking on land, but the fish themselves are dead, but the parasite is using the fish as a vehicle, so it smells awful. The parasites get stronger and stronger, and then they start infecting sharks, and eventually, they start infecting people, and it’s disgusting. They did turn it into an anime adaptation of another name, and it wasn’t as strong as the books, but I am always excited to see Junji Ito books turn into a video. One of his more popular books, Uzumaki, is about a spiral entity that infects this town with spirals. They are turning it into a short anime on AdultSwim very soon, so I’m excited about that. I think overall; the cake has to go to Parasyte.  

What is Black representation in Horror to you? 

Everything. It’s my everything. I want that to be the number one message behind my content—representation matters. Most of the time and especially now that I’m at home and I am limited to the events that I go to, I haven’t been spreading that message as aggressively as I usually do. I typically travel to conventions maybe once a month from here in New York to the DMV and Atlanta area to speak on a panel with my friend and mentor, Hilton George, who is the con chair of Blerdcon (I work for that company). We give panel discussions at conventions about what it means to be a “blerd,” why representation matters. It’s the unspoken theme that if you are a Black person and you are into the “geek” realm or whatever your vice may be that you might have been made fun of in the past. It makes people sad.

Personally speaking I feel like it can cause a lot of identity issues in Black youth, especially when they are trying to find their creative outlets to figure out who they are while growing up. It can be very confusing because there aren’t any other Black people around you that are into the same thing, or the media you are consuming doesn’t include you . That can go as far as music, bands, theatre, not just pop culture and what we indulge in, it can be anything. Representation is everything because we consume a lot, especially as Americans, if it’s not pop culture its television. “It’s really important for man to see himself,”and I’m quoting Blacula when I say that. I think it’s dangerous if you don’t then it could lead to identity issues like “am I not wanted in these spaces?”, “am I not supposed to exist in these spaces?” and for me, that caused a lot of issues in my younger life. I just recorded an episode for a panel for Dragoncon a few days ago with Girl That’s Scary and my mentor, and we were talking about representation. I told them that even it wasn’t on the big studios’ mind, but when Black Panther dropped, it made a lot of money. Not only because it was a great movie but because it could have been a very mediocre movie and still made a lot of money because parents are seeing the importance of having a superhero that their children can see and dress up as so they aren’t limited to Captain America and Iron Man. It makes kids feel seen. For adults, life gets harder as we grow older, but kids are very easily moldable, and when you see that kind of joy just from a movie, it gives you the taste of how this could change the evolution of young Black kids. I try to make that known when I do these panels. I really have been trying my best to find other people like me because, in the past, I spent most of my time just speaking to other blerds in general, but during this rebrand, I realized I didn’t know any other Black Horror nerds. In my immediate circle of blerds people, people would come to me for Horror. When I have a question or need someone else’s opinion I don’t know who to go to. So I am sitting here at home with nothing else to do, and I’m like, “I need to find my clique,” I need to find my people. That is when I started to do my wide search, and that’s when I found you and Girls That’s Scary, Bobby Torrez, and I’m really thankful that I found you guys. I don’t want to say that quarantine led me to do it, but it did. It’s very apparent how much I was missing my immediate community. It wasn’t even about Pop culture, but just something simple like news. I would scroll down my news feed, and I wouldn’t see anyone that looked like me. No one is posting Horror shit that looks like me, that I can relate to, and that unintentionally hurt my feelings. In the back of my head, I questioned, “Am I the only Black person here right now.” There are layers to this shit. I can’t stress enough how important it is for people to see themselves in other spaces. It can be damaging. 

Xero Gravity is a pop culture horror haven for all fans of the genre. Cross-platform, Xero is a figure that surrounds themselves with like-minded POC horror fans. The relationship between black and brown faces and the horror genre is a fairly untapped and unrecognized disadvantage, which is why Xero Gravity and her surrounding community create a space for all people to feel represented together and enjoy the genre. Representation in geekdom is why Xero Gravity exists.  

Check out Xero Gravity on Social Media 

Instagram: @idkgravity

Facebook: @idkgravity

Twitter: @idkgravity

KyFx Horror Group, LLC.

Houston, TX