C'mon, you all roughly know the legend of Slender Man by this point, right? Doesn't make the dude any less terrifying. Beginning as an attempt by user of the Something Awful internet forums to consciously create a modern ghost story, the character somehow did become part of popular culture and evolve into a true urban legend, to the point now that most people have no idea where he originated from. Instead they take all his appearances in creepypastas, online video series like Marble Hornets and countless video games at face value. There's always been a Slender Man, surely? That's exactly what you're supposed to think. The character started as a shadowy figure that was Photoshopped into the backgrounds of old, black-and-white pictures, which are still pretty unsettling to look at. These photos were accompanied with captions implying that the monster had been sighted over the course of decades, in places all over the world - he may even appear in actual, real life old wood carvings and texts, which is so mind boggling and scary it doesn't bear thinking about too much. Even more than Jeff The Killer, pretty much everyone on the internet is aware of Slender Man at this point, and yet his inherent creepiness hasn't diminished a jot. Perhaps his varied inspirations - the actual supernatural rumours surrounding shadow men, along with the writing of Lovecraft and Stephen King - help. Maybe it's just that he plays on fears and moments of panic we've all suffered, the times we think we've seen a glimpse of some dark figure over our shoulder, our hearts leaping into our mouths...then we turn, and find out nobody's there. Or is there?
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/
