The force behind the early Beatles

“Brian was a flawed and imperfect hero, but he was a hero all the same.... So like all worthy heroes, why shouldn’t Brian Epstein have a life in comics?”

So said Vivek J. Tiwary in an essay at the back of “The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story,” a graphic novel he wrote that has arrived in paperback. Despite the darkness at the heart of the story — Epstein had a number of problems, including the drug addictions that ended his life at 32 — the book is an ebullient, colorful biography, and the quote represents it quite well.

Epstein, for those not up on their Beatle history, was the first to recognize the band’s potential. He managed and guided them to international success, virtually created Beatlemania and in the process creating a new model for the music industry. Without him, the band might have ended in obscurity, playing in low-rent Hamburg nightclubs to the last.

Or not. But this isn’t a book about the Beatles — it is definitely Epstein’s story. Yes, the Beatles are somewhat overpowering, but they and all the other legendary figures in the swirl of the British Invasion remain supporting characters. But the spotlight remains firmly on Epstein, one of perhaps the few characters in the rise of the Beatles to not be researched to tatters.

And it is a charming, wonderful book. Especially if you play the appropriate era of Beatles music as you read it, which Tiwary cleverly suggests with just the right amount of title and lyric references in captions and dialogue. That’s an easy thing to overdo, but like everything else in this book, the mix is just right.

By: Andrew A. Smith

Source: Florida Keys News

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