Here's the original muck-encrusted mockery of a man, from Theodore Sturgeon's 1940 tale, as adapted here by Roy Thomas, Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia. We actually had the original story in a sci-fi / horror compendium in our school library, and I vividly remember reading It! one lunchtime, and being so repulsed by Sturgeon's descriptions of the creature that I couldn't finish my sandwiches...
Even with decades of Man-Thing's, Swamp Thing's, Bog Beast's and Heap's, It! is still powerful stuff, Marie and Frankie are on top form as always, and Roy keeps it all as nasty as the original.
Astoundingly, someone suggested at the time that It should have it's own series, just at the same time that Manny was slithering out of the swamp. Possibly, that's the apocryphal tale of Len Wein & Marv Wolfman trying to convince Stan to do a female version called She-It ( say it quickly ). Anyway, common sense prevailed. This is an absolute one-off.
