One of the best parts of reading a Stephen King book is imagining what the horrors on the page look like. While his prose varies, he definitely knows how to build suspense and create an image that is just as jarring as any film could ever be. It's why his partnership with artist Bernie Wrightson seems like a bit of an anomaly to a career fueled by imagination. "Cycle of the Werewolf" is a concept comic designed like a comic book, depicting the chaos of one small town over one year as a werewolf attacks innocent people. The stories are largely unconnected, but it slowly builds to an understated and somewhat underrated experience, capturing the essence of King in a brief form that is more creatively innovative than it is as a story. Still, it recontextualizes his work in a new and exciting way.
Over roughly 50 pages, between January and December, the story unfolds from the perspective of local townspeople. The story begins on a quiet and ominous night, not suggesting that death lingers only four paragraphs away. The characters ramble around the woods while enjoying their nights. The general execution of the 12 chapters have that format that makes up any good short story. There's the establishment followed by the doubt and action. Some of it ends abruptly while others tear through half a page, forcing the reader to interpret the horror that is happening on the page. Considering that King has done more elaborate work on other fantasy forces, it's a bit underwhelming that his take on lyncanthropes is at times so underwhelming. Still, he captures a visceral fear that is at its core what makes werewolves so exciting.
The one conflict with the story's set-up is often the placement of pictures. While the twist is predictable and everyone knows that the chapters end in death, the images often are introduced before the action has occurred. Even then, Wrightson's imagery is terrific and elevates the lacking elements of the book. Between classical black and white imagery that opens each chapter and the graphic image of werewolves, there's a strong sense of place just by flipping through the images. Much like the work on the various "The Dark Tower" books, King has a good eye for artist collaborators. They may be stylized like a perverted Norman Rockwell painting moments before they turn into grotesque horror images, but they fill the reader with dread as well as a spoiler. There's almost no reason to read on except to understand why this image exists. In some ways, the images could've been placed towards the end of the story, if just to create a more fluid sense of story.
While the book is largely vignettes, the back half becomes a decent mystery story in regards to "Who is the werewolf?" While the motive is largely absent, the psychological impacts are explored broadly in ways that can be a bit unnerving and create a deconstruction of small town life. King is best when he's telling elaborate stories, and the back half in some ways saves the story beyond its weird desire to tell a horror story for each month's major holiday (King even apologizes for not following the lunar calendar at the end). It's novel and creates a decent story, though doesn't challenge King in the way that most of his other books do. It might be the point that this is a brief shot of horror artfully done. If that's the case, this is some fun afternoon reading. It may be far from his best, but it's far from his least interesting as well.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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