It has been a TV miniseries and a two-part feature film, and a prequel series—It: Welcome to Derry—is coming to HBO later this year. But there’s no out-creeping the original 1986 Stephen King novel, released long before the phrase “un-Google-able title” came into existence. With over 1,100 pages, it’s one of King’s longest works, and to have even a paperback copy means you’ll need ample shelf space. But a new special release from the Folio Society is so fancy, it may need an entire shelf of its own. Maybe even a display case.
This edition, limited to just 500 copies and approved by King himself, features both color and black-and-white illustrations by Jim Burns; the box, binding, and endpapers are by David Curtis. (Curtis also designed “instructions on how to make a paper boat,” according to a Folio Society press release, in case the book inspires you to go hunting for a sewer-dwelling demonic clown.)
But that’s not all! There’s also a new introduction by no less a nightmare authority than Guillermo del Toro, who writes, “It speaks of the struggle that never ends, the eternal vigil against evil that is, by necessity, cyclical. The many shapes the cosmic dread takes keep changing: sometimes smiling, sometimes frowning at us.”
“It was a presage of what was to come in adult years—it struck great fear in me—irrational fear and then, slowly, a fragile kind of bravery— the tenuous understanding that when all is said and done, all we have is each other.”
Those themes are there, for sure, and in this particular case, they’re wrapped in some rather beautiful gore. Check out more images here:
Beep beep! Such ghoulish glamor doesn’t come cheap; this It will set you back $825 and is available now.
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