Graphic Novel ‘Yesterday’ From 2011 Similar to Danny Boyle Film Is Posted Online for Free

By Elsa Keslassy

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – As Danny Boyle’s Beatles-themed film “Yesterday” gets ready to hit theaters, David Blot, a longtime French proponent of house music, has decided to post his 2011 graphic novel – which has the same title and a similar premise – for free online.

Blot’s graphic novel follows John Duval, a French New Yorker in his 20s who is accidentally propelled back in time to 1960 and records the Beatles’ songs before the band is formed, leading him to become the biggest pop star of all time. Boyle’s film stars Himesh Patel as a struggling young British musician who wakes up after a mysterious global blackout and realizes he’s the only person on Earth who remembers the Beatles. After taking credit for the band’s songs, he becomes a huge star. The film will be released in the U.S. on Friday.

Boyle told Variety that the script to his film was sent to him by screenwriter Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill”), with whom Boyle worked on the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. “We had kept in touch. I said sort of politely, ‘If you ever got anything remember to think of me.’ He said, ‘Actually I just finished a script,’ and he sent it to me. I read it and I thought, ‘I’ve got to do this.’”

In messages on social media announcing that he was posting his graphic novel for free, Blot – who doesn’t appear to have sold rights to the story – made no reference to the movie.

On Facebook , he said his novel “” was meant to be the first part of “The Adventures of John Duval & The Futurians,” but the comic book publisher Manolosanctis closed down while he was writing the second volume. Drawn by French artist Jérémie Royer, the book came out in September 2011. It is not currently in print.

“Maybe…one day, another publisher will come along and we’ll be able to tell the rest of the story, who knows,” said Blot.

Here are the links to Blot’s graphic novel: