It! (short story)

"It!" is an influential horror short story by Theodore Sturgeon, first published in Unknown August 1940. The story deals with a plant monster that is ultimately revealed to have formed around a human skeleton, specifically that of Roger Kirk, in a swamp.

Similar characters

The story's seminal nature is indicated by the plant-based swamp monsters that appeared in various comicbooks. Among these characters are Hillman Comics' Heap in Airboy Comics, who debuted in what was intended as a one-time appearance in the feature "Skywolf" in Air Fighters #3 (Dec. 1942). Created by writer Harry Stein and artist Mort Leav, the Heap became a popular character in return appearances and later an ongoing solo feature.

Early depictions of the Heap look highly similar to the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies character Gossamer, an orange-furred, practically featureless monster in sneakers who menaced Bugs Bunny in the 1946 animated short "Hair-Raising Hare" before going on to other appearances (named "Rudolph" in one).

Solomon Grundy in All-American Comics is the result of a criminal having fallen in a swamp, though he did not have a plantlike appearance.

Sturgeon's story continued to show influence after the relaxation of the Comics Code Authority's restrictions on horror late in 1971. Man-Thing first appeared (in an unrestricted black and white magazine-size comic) from Marvel Comics in May 1971, and DC Comics introduced Swamp Thing in the anthology comic House of Mystery #82 in June 1971. A different character, based upon the House of Mystery story, also called Swamp Thing debuted in issue #1 of its own title (November 1971) after popular response to the original story. Gerry Conway and Len Wein, the writers who created Man-Thing and Swamp Thing respectively, were good friends and roommates at the time but did not discuss their work with each other.

Marvel Comics did a comic book adaptation of the story in Supernatural Thrillers#1.

Marvel also published an adaptation of the original story in Supernatural Thrillers #1. Tony Isabella wished to write an ongoing series featuring Sturgeon's creature, but was denied because of the similarity to Man-Thing, reusing the name and logo for It! The Living Colossus since writing duties on Man-Thing were not available.

The 1980s saw the introduction of Bog Swamp Demon and two Swamp Thing movies, as well as Dave Sim's Man-Thing and Swamp Thing parodies, Woman-Thing and Sump-Thing, in the pages of Cerebus.

The 1990s introduced more parodies, including Swamp Beast in Harvey Comics' Monster in My Pocket and Man-Thang and Swamp-Thang in Marvel's What The--?!.

External links

• It! in Spanish translation