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The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

Yesterday, French comics creator Dave Blot sent me a link to his graphic novel, drawn by Jérémie Royer and published in France in 2011 about a man who finds himself mysteriously sent back in time to the 60s and who decides to record and release the Beatles music before they have a chance to write it. It's called Yesterday.

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

Which is obviously also the name of the new Danny Boyle/Richard Curtis movie about a man who wakes up in a world where the Beatles never existed… and does the very same thing.

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

Given the dramatic similarity between the two, Danny has made his version available for free, in both the original French and in a rather smooth English translation. So people can see for themselves.

The comic book follows the life of John Duval, a Frenchman from New York who wakes up in the early 60s. Much of the story involves him trying to come to terms with his new reality, and accepting this is who he is and where he is now. Familiar names from the music and arts scene float through his life and one day, in a major funk after finding his girlfriend cheating on him with Bob Dylan, he starts to play.

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

Cut straight to a year later, and he is a successful singer-songwriter of the band The Futurians…

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

…and going to England on tour to a country engaged in Future-mania, with a press keen to talk to them…

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

…and crowds to appreciate them.

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

But his guilty conscience plays large…

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

Where he finds himself meeting a couple of other musicians who are having some success in Germany…

The French Comic That's Really, Really Close to the Plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' Yesterday – and is Called Yesterday

It won't end well. The Curtis/Doyle movie might have a chance at a happy ending. That film has Himesh Patel as a wannabe musician who is the only person who can remember the Beatles and their music. No cut to one year later for him, the film shows his journey to fame and is released this week.

Blot says that Yesterday was only meant to be part one, of "The Adventures of John Duval & The Futurians," but the publisher shuttered while he was writing volume two. Any other publishers out there who may be interested?


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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