Another new book about late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is hitting bookshelves next month, this one a graphic novel exploring the innovator's spiritual development, the publishers announced Thursday.

The Zen of Steve Jobs, by Forbes reporter Caleb Melby, is described as a "thoroughly researched interpretation of a well-documented period" in Jobs' life which revolutionized technology and design, according to a statement by Forbes Media and John Wiley & Sons.

The book centers on the period starting in 1985 when Jobs left Apple and founded the computer company NeXT.

During that time he forged a relationship with Japanese Soto Zen Buddhist priest Kobun Chino Otogawa.

"Kobun was to Buddhism as Jobs was to technology: a renegade and a maverick," the publishers said in the statement.

Their time together, they said, was central to the great leaps forward that Apple took later on, after Jobs rejoined the company in 1996 and it became a model for design and business strategy.

One section, set in the mid-1980s, takes place at a California Zen retreat. Kobun teaches Jobs walking meditation, and alludes to Jobs' quest to understand ma, a Japanese design concept which the publishers said was apparent in the simplicity of today's Apple products.

After Jobs returned to Apple, his Buddhist experiences influenced his corporate philosophy, the publishers said.

The book is just one of many creative arts offerings to arise since Jobs' death in October. An off-Broadway play, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, won strong reviews and extended its run after tickets sold out, and Walter Isaacson's biography Steve Jobs became an instant bestseller.

Reuters