The Slender Man was created on June 10, 2009 on a thread in the Something Awful Internet forum.[5][6] The thread was a Photoshop contest in which users were challenged to edit everyday photographs to appear paranormal. Forum poster Eric Knudsen, under the pseudonym "Victor Surge",[7] contributed two black and white images of groups of children, to which he added a tall, thin spectral figure wearing a black suit.[8][9] Although previous entries had consisted solely of photographs, Surge supplemented his submission with snatches of text—supposedly from witnesses—describing the abductions of the groups of children, and giving the character the name "The Slender Man":
The quote under the first photograph read:
We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time…
— 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.[9]
The quote under the second photograph read:
One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as “The Slender Man”. Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.
— 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986.[9]
These additions effectively transformed the photographs into a work of fiction. Subsequent posters expanded upon the character, adding their own visual or textual contributions
