Whilst a lot of urban legends created through the internet have a basis in contemporary fears and the unusual intruding on our comfortable modern existence, there are still a handful out there whose roots stretch even further back, into the oral tradition of folk tales before message boards were a thing. Anasi's Goatman Story is one such story, adapted from an old Native American campfire tale and given that creepypasta sheen (read: misspellings and accompanying YouTube clips) we've all come to know and fear. The story also plays on horror movie tropes that you seen in films like The Thing, with the surprisingly deliberate pacing and atmosphere slowly building up an untenable sense of dread whilst you read it. So obviously you should read the whole thing whilst alone, in the dark, accompanied by only the soft glow and low hum of your monitor. The Goatman Story begins with Anansi, our narrator, visiting family down south. Already a little put out for being moved from his usual Chicago home, stuff goes from bad to worse for the sixteen-year-old. He, his cousins and their friends go camping in the Alabama wilderness, and it's there they first see it. The Goatman slowly stalks them, seen at a distance talking gibberish and moving in a freakishly unnatural way, infiltrating the group one by one and not slaughtering them in a gory fashion - as many urban legends tend to end - but simply screwing with them, sending them each into such deep levels of paranoia that they turn on each other. Really effective and damned terrifying.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
