The Folio Society To Publish A Limited Edition of Stephen King’s IT
One of Stephen King’s most popular and iconic novels, IT was first published in 1986. The book went on to win the British Fantasy Award in 1987, was adapted into several films, and firmly established its creepy clown antagonist as a massively influential part of the pop-culture lexicon. Now the Folio Society, an independent publisher of beautifully illustrated hardback books, will publish a limited illustrated edition of Stephen King’s seminal classic IT, featuring chilling illustrations by award-winning artist Jim Burns as well as an all-new introduction by Guillermo Del Toro.
In honor of this gorgeous release, we have some exclusive sketches from Jim Burns, along with exclusive commentary from the artist about his process.
First is a chilling illustration of Ben smashing some massive spider eggs:
Burns told Dread Central, “Here is the final artwork submitted of the ‘Ben stamping on the eggs’ image. I managed to get my timelines a bit mixed up and initially depicted Ben as the chubby lad of the ‘Losers Club’ when he was supposed to be the adult, much trimmer Ben. This slip-up was delicately pointed out to me by James Rose and I managed to erase my original Ben without too much hassle and replace him with an adult and more streamlined Ben. This was literally at the very last moment when everything was supposed to be pretty much wound up and finished!“
Next are a series of sketches done by Burns to plan out the larger illustrations throughout the novel:
Burns told Dread Central, “Normally, I would consider whether or not I need some sessions with models to enact the moments I’m trying to depict. But this particular job was a little different, in that the window available to me — to produce 11 black and whites plus 6 full-colour paintings — was really very short, as the scheduling dictated by the Rights availability allowed for little by way of relaxed indulgence. I simply had to bang on with them as quickly as possible! Such pose elements — in particular the various groping hands — were basically me and my iPhone references, and for a couple — namely Bev in the bathroom and Patrick and the leech attack — I employed my granddaughter Nancy as the ‘arm model’. A fair bit of Frankensteinian jiggery pokery was employed on stock reference too, and then the whole thing is overlaid with ‘imagination’.
“The black and white drawings were pretty straightforward really, taking less time to produce than the business of ‘working at the coalface of the easel’ on the paintings. I suppose in an ideal world I would have liked more time to finesse the paintings… but that is, sometimes, the nature of this game, particularly when one is under some very strict deadline considerations!“
Limited to just 500 copies, the stunning edition features 11 double-page black-and-white illustrations and 6 double-page color illustrations from Burns, as well as box, binding, and endpaper design by David Curtis. The limited edition will be quarter bound in leather with printed cloth sides and printed edges and presented in a clamshell box covered in cloth with a printed lining. The box also includes instructions on how to make a paper boat, designed by Curtis, which recalls the boat that sends Georgie into the sewers. Every element of the production has been approved by Stephen King himself and will feature signatures from Del Toro, Burns, and Curtis.
“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,” said Guillermo Del Toro in his deeply personal introduction. “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.”
The Folio Society edition of IT is available for £590 / $825 exclusively from https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/fiction/comics-graphic-novels.
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