Pennywise – or “It,” if you prefer, or “Pennywise the Dancing Clown” if you’d like to be very formal – is an all-encompassing evil being of varying shape and size (more on that later) that turns up in 27-year cycles (give or take) in the beleaguered town of Derry, Maine. His principal purpose is to murder children, and what better way to achieve that end than to most often take on the guise of a delightful clown? Because kids just love clowns!
It’s primary power is the ability to transform into just about anything, thus taking on the image of whatever its current victim fears, whether an animal or something more fanciful and bizarre. By instilling fear, it primes its prey for the final moment of death, and then it feeds. It also has the ability to influence memory and action, covering up and erasing the knowledge of past violent acts that would have revealed its presence and its reign of death; in particular, it cloaks itself well from the perception of adult human beings.
So here is a small dedication to the clown who is most feared. Illustration by Shaza Sherin and Animation by Bharat S
