The Zen of Steve Jobs: graphic novel


[Video Link] The Zen of Steve Jobs is an 80-page graphic novel by Caleb Melby and Jess3 that "imagines the part of his life when he was fired from Apple in the mid-80s… He turned to Buddhism, which he familiarized himself with both in high school and college."

The Zen of Steve Jobs tells the story of Jobs' relationship with one such person: Kobun Chino Otogawa.


Kobun was a Zen Buddhist priest who emigrated to the U.S. from Japan in the early 1970s. He was an innovator, lacked appreciation for rules and was passionate about art and design. Kobun was to Buddhism as Jobs was to the computer business: a renegade and maverick. It wasn't long before the two became friends–a relationship that was not built to last.


This graphic book is a reimagining of that friendship. The story moves back and forward in time, from the 1970s to 2011, but centers on the period after Jobs' exile from Apple in 1985 when he took up intensive study with Kobun. Their time together was integral to the big leaps that Apple took later on with its product design and business strategy.


Told using stripped down dialogue and bold calligraphic panels, The Zen of Steve Jobs explores how Jobs might have honed his design aesthetic via Eastern religion before choosing to identify only what he needs and leave the rest behind.

Buy The Zen of Steve Jobs on Amazon