What Happened to Creeps McPasta, and why I love the Creepypasta community.

Over the Easter weekend, while he was at a convention, some bastard or bastards broke into the modest flat of Creeps McPasta, and stole everything of value, from his recording equipment, to his prescription sunglasses. He was understandably distraught, but seemed more distressed at his inability to record his expected Creepypasta in the coming week. Before you knock Creepypasta, or it's readers, be aware that Creeps himself has a following of over one million two-hundred subscribers. More people are listening to his stories in a week than most authors get readers in a year.

Within three hours of the news breaking, someone had started a Go-Fund-Me on his behalf, and they had reached their target of two thousand pounds. It's still going strong, having far exceeded it's target. This shows how much the Creepypasta community values it's storytellers. The money will be used to replace the stolen equipment, and to secure the flat against future burglaries. This is not so much a case of people giving to a charitable cause, but of people giving back. A thank you for the five years of free entertainment that he has given us.

Creeps McPasta is not alone in what he does, there are at least a hundred CreepyPasta readers on YouTube, most with names that rearrange or reiterate the basic theme. Mr CreepyPasta, Creepypasta Jnr, Dr Creepen, Creeparoni, etc, and a few with unrelated names like King Spook, Black-Eyed Blonde and Natenator. All give their time and energy free of charge, to entertain each other and their audiences with Gory tales, Lovecraftian tales, sick tales, all shades of horror, and sometimes with pathos mixed in. Standing on the outside looking in as I am, I see very little ego involved, and no pretentiousness. They have few literary pretensions, and never let ambitions to greatness get in the way of a good story. I love the way the authors recycle ideas shamelessly, often using the same characters like Jeff the Killer, the Rake, or the infamous Slenderman; I always get a lovely thrill when I find that I am listening to another Candle Cove story unawares. But most of all now, I love the way they all rally round and help when one of their own is in need.

I wish it were possible for all the CreepyPasta readers and writers to get paid for what they do. Hell, I'd rather like to get paid myself! But money is tight for all save the very rich, and more and more people are doing for free what other people are getting paid for. Some think this undermines "real" authors and "real" voice artists, who would pay for a thing when you can get it free? My own personal use of horror media says, plenty. Having a whole load of free stories online doesn't stop me buying books and ebooks. It is true that Creepypastas vary in quality, and some readers are clearly better than others; but the same is true of stories by paid authors. I personally find the quality of storytelling in books to be very variable, and have found as many unreadable stories in published anthologies and I have found unlistenable Creepypastas. At least with Creepypastas, I haven't paid good money to be bored.

Here follows three of my favourite Creepypastas, as read by Creeps McPasta.