The runaway hit best-selling graphic novel The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, which is the absorbing and gripping true story of the life of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who lived cloaked and shrouded in an existence that was at one point of the spectrum supernova successful and at the other utter tragedy, is being adapted for the silver screen.

A major advantage that this Beatles biopic has that other adaptations didn’t have (films like Backbeat, About A Boy, the TV film Birth of the Beatles and others) is that the producers were able to secure the music rights to the production, which means the original and wonderfully dulcet and otherwise sonic glory of The Beatles’ songs will be able to be used in its intrinsic format. Normally, most Beatles productions of this stripe employ sound-a-like versions of the Fab Four classics, and the films suffer because of their inferiority. Not the case with The Fifth Beatle.

The Fifth Beatle
The Brian Epstein Story
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
Written by Vivek J. Tiwary
Pencils by Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Inks by Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Letters by Steve Dutro
Colors by Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker
Cover by Andrew C. Robinson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 19, 2013
Cover Price: $19.99

The life of Brian Epstein, who discovered and managed The Beatles and who almost singlehandedly supplied the runway in which the band could propel itself to the greatest heights, is the subject of a dazzling, can’t put it down graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics, entitled what many thought Brian to be during his short and troubled, yet fascinating life, The Fifth Beatle.

The legend of who the Fifth Beatle actually was has been sussed out to be many other figures in the band’s folklore along with Epstein, figures like radio DJ Murray the K, who anointed himself as such in the most novelty and charming way, or long-time friends Mal Evans or Neil Aspinall, both of whom were with the band in their earliest makeups and wound up becoming key integral parts of the rich, sprawling history the group found themselves entailed in as the years went on. But to people like Paul McCartney, Brian Epstein always held the mantle and title of the Fifth Beatle. And the creators of this biographic tale feel the same way, in essence, that nobody could claim that title but Brian.