We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

The two most famous evil clowns in pop culture are the Joker from "Batman" and Pennywise from Stephen King's "IT." Yet while equal in their malevolence, Pennywise is in another league of evil. Pennywise is not really a "dancing clown," but a cosmic horror that has long slept under Derry, Maine. Every 27 years, it awakens to feast on the town's children and their fear. The Joker has no set origin, but the usual story is he was a normal man who fell into a vat of chemicals, then walked out with bleached skin, green hair, and a permanent smile.

The writer who has most bridged the two characters is Scott Snyder, who wrote "Batman" from 2011 to 2016. Snyder has cited King as a formative writing influence for him, and he even got King t

See Full Page