Cycle of the Werewolf
Pages: 127.
Released: November 1983 (mass market in 1985).
Screen adaptations: As "Silver Bullet," 1985, directed by Dan Attias from a screenplay by Stephen King.
Connections to other works: Tarker's Mill isn't too far from 'Salem's Lot, so it's not surprising to see Clyde Corliss, who escaped the vampires, to be killed by the werewolf.


The story goes like this: Illustrator Bernie Wrightson and King hooked up to make a calender. Each month would have a Wrightson illustration paired with a short vignette from King. To paraphrase King, he tends to add more often than subtract. The vignette format was too short for King. So they made this book instead.

It's still short, especially for a stand-alone publication. The 127 pages include the wonderfully rendered, full color Wrightson illustrations as well as a number of black and white pieces. Just flipping through the book, it's easy to count that five or six pages of each of the book's twelve chapters are devoted to illustration of some form. Roughly have the total page count, in other words.

This is a good time for me to be reading this book. I've been back in school for a week now and have plenty of homework. It shouldn't take too long to get through this bit of horror.

Heck, if I didn't have class today, I could put paid to this in a day. Then we'd be into The Talisman.