Brian Epstein, the man often called the "fifth Beatle" for discovering and managing the Fab Four until his untimely death in 1967, lives on in a new graphic novel by Vivek J. Tiwary, the Wall Street Journal reports. Tiwary, who now works in the music industry and has produced Broadway shows (including Green Day's American Idiot), says Epstein was his "historical mentor" that he never met.

"I could really relate to a lot of the struggles Brian had," Tiwary said yesterday at New York Comic Con. "Telling his story is a very passionate labor of love for me... I wanted to work in artist management, I wanted to manage bands. I thought, 'If I'm going to manage bands, I should study the great artist managers.'"

The Fifth Beatle tells Epstein's life story and features artwork by Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker; it will be published next year by M Press Books, a division of Dark Horse Comics. Tiwary is looking to take the book to film and hopes to use the Beatles' own songs.

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