I found Storm Surge to be an interesting sub story in the Frankenstein books by Dean Koontz. I thought the drawings were well done. I had started the book series and read the first few books, but hadn't had a chance to read the rest of the books. This graphic novel reignited my interested, and reminded me that I liked the characters and Dean Koontz's retelling of the Frankenstein story. Thank you for the review copy.

Having liked Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein novels, I decide to take up Netgalley’s offer of read it now (thank you) but once again I hit a glitched copy (and from reviews I’m not alone) so it took me time to run it down at a library so I could actually review this and keep it from weighing down my ratings.

The art isn’t bad at all, nor is it stand out. It’s fairly standard graphic novel art (but at least it’s not ugly like so much I’ve seen recently).

The basic premise of Koontz’s Frankenstein series is Victor Frankenstein (using the name Helios now) has achieved a form of immortality and has taken up residency in New Orleans. He’s busy building a new race of ‘improved’ humans. Meanwhile his original monster (calling himself Deucalion), also immortal, has returned to stop (read kill) his master any way he can. This Frankenstein is even more arrogant and narcissistic than the Shelley’s original and he’s also a sexual sadist. He keeps recreating his ideal (i.e. beautiful and utterly obedient) wife (Erika Five) who is struggling to understand how he can be so vicious with her especially in bed.

If nothing else, this is her story more than anyone else’s. The graphic novel suffers from the same problem the novels do: too many characters, too many plot threads. It’s quite convoluted. In this one we have zombies, Erika Five’s quest for understanding that somehow leads to the multiverse and not to mention the titular storm. Some other reviewers said without having read the novels they felt lost and I can see that. It’s a lot to follow even when you do know the basic storyline.

Overall, it’s fun, if a bit confusing. I do have a soft spot for Deucalion so that helps. I would probably go try the novel series first before launching on this.

'Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Storm Surge' by Chuck Dixon and Rik Hoskin from an original story by Dean Koontz, and art by Andres Ponce is a standalone story set in a world of books I haven't read. I was able to figure things out as I went.

Victor Frankenstein is known as Victor Helios in this series. He has also made a series of women. The latest one, Erika Five, decides to explore Victor's secret lab. She finds a talking head named Karloff (nice touch), and a lot more. She finds a portal to another world where Victor is conducting his experiments on the undead. This world is the city of New Orleans at the height of an oncoming flood, not unlike Hurricane Katrina it would seem. As the city becomes choked with the undead, Erika is trying to find Victor to stop him. She finds an ally in another creature that Victor created who now goes by the name of Deucalion. Can they stop Victor? Can they save this strange convoluted story?

The art is good. The story is kind of messy. There are a lot of plot elements that are just to be taken at face value. A talking, disembodied head. Portals to the future. Victor seemingly able to survive in a horde of zombies, even after getting dealt some fatal wounds. I can take a little of this, but it feels like it piled up to a point where my disbelief snapped. I like monster stories, and especially the Frankenstein story, but I was a little disappointed in this.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.