Slender Man

About

Slender Man (a.k.a Slenderman) is a mythical creature often depicted as a tall, thin figure wearing a black suit and a blank face. According to the legend, he can stretch or shorten his arms at will and has tentacle-like appendages protruding from his back. Depending on the interpretations of the myth, the creature may cause memory loss, insomnia, paranoia, coughing fits (nicknamed "slendersickness"), photograph/video distortions and can teleport at will. The urban legend has inspired fan arts , fictional creepypastas and a mockumentary series in the style of the 1999 indie horror film Blair Witch Project . As the character has grown in popularity, he's gained a number of other nicknames including The Operator, Der Großmann, Mr. Slim, The Administrator, Daddy LongLegs, Mr. Thin, The Tall Man, The Thin Man and Slendy.

Origin

On June 8th, 2009, a "'paranormal pictures" photoshop contest was launched on the Something Awful (SA) Forums. [1] The contest required participants to turn ordinary photographs into creepy-looking images through digital manipulation and then pass them on as authentic photographs on a number of paranormal forums. Something Awful users soon began sharing their faux-paranormal creations with layered images of ghosts and other anomalies, usually accompanied by a fabricated witness account to make them more convincing. On June 10th, SA user Victor Surge (real name Eric Knudsen) posted two black and white photographs of unnamed children with a short description of "Slender Man" as a mysterious creature who stalked children. [2] On June 11th, 2009, Victor Surge continued to improve upon the myth by adding another picture and a fake doctor's account. [3] The following day, SA user LeechCode5 [4] posted a photograph of a burning building with a Slender Man back story. On June 14th, SA goon TrenchMaul [6] reused the Slender Man character for his own story. The original thread, which still remains active today, extends for 46 pages as of June 2011. The creation of "Slender Man" may have been also inspired by an ongoing series of amateur adventure games titled "Chzo Mythos" [37] , published by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw in 2003. In the games, one of the main vilains is called "Cabadath" and is sometimes referred to as "Tall Man." [38] Making his first in-game appearance in Trilby's Notes , the character was portrayed in the third installment as a tall, thin man dressed in a long, black, high-collared coat with tails that reach to the floor and having a blank face. Throughout the adventures, the Tall Man can be seen stalking and trying to kill the main character. Der Großmann [45] (pronounced "gross-man") is German for "The Great Man" and is often translated into copypastas as The Tall Man . It is rumored to be a German folklore concerning a tall boogeyman existing since the 16th century, which was introduced to the mythos as an "In Game" point of origin for the creature. It was first first used in the Slender Man web series TribeTwelve [29] and has then been reused in many creepypastas. [46] Other recurring names are Schwarzwald ("The Black forest"), an actual place in Germany where the creature is said to have first appeared, and Der Ritter ("The Knight") based on several 16th century woodcuts by Hans Freckenberg that featured a strange figure dueling another man (shown below, left). On March 17th, 2011, Encyclopedia Slenderia [47] published a post revealing that the original woodcut of Der Ritter did not show additional limbs (shown below, right).

Spread

Slender Man became a well-known mythical creature on the /x/ (paranormal) 4chan board. [7] The earliest known mention of "Slender Man" on 4chan can be found in an archived thread dating back to June 24th, 2009, though the conversation suggests that it had been mentioned prior. The image was coupled with hand-drawn illustrations and fanart. Outside of 4chan, Slender Man has caught the attention of several websites including the Unfiction Forums [8] , Fangoria [9] , Bungie, [10] Facepunch, [11] Wikibin, [12] /x/enopedia, [13] TVTropes , [14] Kongregate, [15] DeviantArt , [16] SlenderNation, [17] and Mythical Creatures Guide. [18] Trender Man is described as the sassy brother (sometimes referred to as a cousin) of Slender Man with a passion for fashion and clothing, wearing brown fashionable attire with a white shirt underneath. The photograph, representing a shop mannequin with no visible face, was taken by Tumblr user Conjured Charisma who posted it on his blog on July 31st, 2012 titled Slenderman's casual Friday . [58] But his name and further relationship as a brother were coined by Tumblr user I Lack Tact as a response to another user commenting on the photo, on August 1st. [59] The character became popular within Tumblr, has its own memegenerator page [57] and inspired a number of macros and art pieces mainly involving puns on fashion and clothing altogether sometimes mixed with the original Slender Man myth. Online artist communities like DeviantART also became a hubsite for fan illustrations of the mythical figure.