It’s time to look at IDW’s main Back to the Future (BTTF) comic book series. It started publishing in October 2015, the same month that Doc and Marty travel to in the second movie (thus coinciding with the 30 year anniversary of the original film). In a press release, Bob Gale (co-writer of the original trilogy with Robert Zemeckis), said that the series would finally answer some of the questions fans had been asking, about events taking place outside of what was seen in the movies.
The plan for the BTTF comic run was a set of short stories. Bob Gale had at minimum partial story credit for each one, and each tale would be illustrated by different artists. However, before the third issue was set to come out, sales warranted the four issue run to be extended to five. Shortly thereafter, IDW went all in, turning the BTTF comic into an ongoing series with longer story arcs. The run continues even now, over two years later.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll start our journey with that initial five comic set, called “Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines” (put together in a trade in 2016). There are nine tales in total (two per issue, except in issue five), and this particular post will focus in on the first three stories. The following sub-headers also serve as the story titles.
WHEN MARTY MET EMMETT
A tale with art by Brent Schoonover. Our story begins with Doc in the late 1800s – a framing device used in every issue – as he attempts to reinvent the flux capacitor. Alas, he can only produce “.04 jigawatts”. And yes, that spelling is used rather than gigawatts, the spelling used in the novelization of the movie, which is a real quantity of power (one billion watts). So while ‘jiga’ is an acceptable pronunciation of ‘giga’, what are we to make of seeing this made-up word in print rather than the real term? (Oh well, let’s move on from the first panel or we’ll be here all day.)
Clara comes in with Jules and Verne (the latter only two years old), and Doc decides to give them some future history. Emmett Lathrop Brown (as he calls himself) explains how his home at 1640 Riverside Drive will burn down in 1962, official cause undetermined, “moreover, the auxiliary structure is untouched. Uh… luckily.” (Doc? Was it arson?) That structure would become the garage Marty visits at the start of the BTTF movie. But we’re not there yet – in fact, the rest of this story takes place on Oct 2, 1982.
Needles comes to see Marty. His group, “The Tabascos”, have a gig, and he wants Marty’s interocitor tube for his amp. They argue, Marty’s tube breaks, and Needles takes Marty’s guitar in response. Marty has until 4pm to get Needles a tube, in exchange for the instrument. (Needles also calls Marty a chicken for good measure.) At the music store, Marty is told that ELB Enterprises cornered the market on those tubes, prompting Marty to visit Doc’s garage.
Fourteen year old Marty gets into the place safely by deciphering a set of clues, then escapes from a Rube Goldberg device which Doc had set up. (Goldberg devices use a chain reaction to accomplish a rather simple task, another nod to the movie.) Doc then appears, wondering if Marty was applying for a job? The clues for getting inside were a puzzle he had provided for applicants. Marty admits that no, he came for the tubes, and Doc backtracks, yielding he simply wanted to see what would happen if he offered Marty employment. Since the scientist truly does need someone to run errands and do inventory.
The two of them shake on working together, and Marty gets his interocitor tubes. (They had been dumped in the trash. Doc wanted the box, for use in his “Static-O-Matic Electric Hair Chair”.) Marty uses a tube to get his guitar back from Needles, and Doc concludes his story to Verne, admitting he never knew why Marty wanted said tubes in the first place. (Raising questions about how the readers can know, but let’s not think too hard about that.)
LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD SCIENTISTS
A tale with art by Dan Schoening, also in issue one. We open on the California Institute of Technology, 1943. While teaching there, Emmett (looking and dressing like an aged up version of the Emmett from the “Citizen Brown” comic that came later, neat) comes to see his superior, Robert Millikan. Emmett says he’s become aware of a top-secret think tank which is benefiting the war effort, and he wants in on it. Robert retorts that, while Emmett is qualified, there is an interview process with military brass.
Emmett decides to use his landlady’s much tidier home for the interview, to give a better impression. Alas, when the interviewers spot a book on needlepoint and an issue of Good Housekeeping addressed to Mrs. Gomez, Emmett thinks he’s blown his chance. Except he soon finds the interviewers at his real home, along with J. Robert Oppenheimer. They like unconventional thinkers, the type who might borrow a more orderly apartment, rather than cleaning their own. With this, Emmett becomes part of the Manhattan Project, ending the story.
Note that while issue one concludes with a “To Be Continued”, that speaks more to the series as a whole. The idea of Emmett’s participation in that project is more woven into the BTTF comic universe. For instance, there was a comment from Needles in the previous story worrying that the interocitor tube might be radioactive, and there’s our next story, which starts off issue two.
THE DOC WHO NEVER WAS
A tale with art by Marcelo Ferreira. We open with our framing device of the 1800s, Marshall Strickland asking Emmett why he’s laying down fifty yards of track with no train. Doc says the future doesn’t always make sense, then heads off, telling his sons about October 24th, 1962. During the 13 day scare known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Doc was lamenting about running out of money while trying to develop the flux capacitor.
General Groves (retired), someone Emmett recognizes from the Manhattan Project, chooses this day to pay a visit. He brings Colonel Lomax (very much active), who is hoping to build a time machine to deal with the Cuban situation. Doc shows them his prototype, a “temporal field capacitor” (TFC). Presently, the TFC allows for travel only within the frame of its own existence, and currently, it can only send items into the future. (Travel to the past creates a buildup of flux energy, which can overheat the system and cause an electrical fire.)
After a demonstration, the government is keen to fund Emmett’s efforts – but that night, Doc has second thoughts about how his machine might be used. This is when a DeLorean shows up outside, containing Marty – who is speaking Russian! Though Doc doesn’t understand, he travels with alt-Marty to May 8, 1982 (interestingly, a date before they would meet in the timeline from issue one), where there are soldiers facing off with Roman centurions outside Twin Pines Mall. Doc reasons that there was a temporal arms race between the US and the Soviet Union, and now time travel is running amok.
Doc returns to the DeLorean, but alt-Marty has vanished. With bombs falling from the sky, Doc exclaims “Great Scott”, and… he wakes up. Was it a dream? Doc decides it doesn’t matter. After helping to usher in one arms race with the Manhattan Project, Doc won’t be party to another. He prepares a message, sending it back to last August using his TFC, despite the danger of an electrical fire. He subsequently fades out of existence, his last thoughts being that, although the government money won’t come, he’d at least heavily insured his house…
It’s October 24th (again), and General Groves and Colonel Lomax show up to discover that Emmett’s house burned down over the summer. Concerned by the rumours that it was arson, done for the insurance money, the military doesn’t approach the scientist at all. Inside his garage, Doc watches triumphantly as they leave, while holding the message from his alternate self. The story concludes with 1880s Clara making a comment about the intricacies of the space-time continuum.
IN SUMMARY
As promised by Bob Gale, these stories fill in some gaps within the BTTF universe. We learn that Marty and Doc met in part because of Needles. We learn more about Doc, including his middle name and what he did prior to 1955. And we see that time travel had a hand in causing the fire which destroyed Doc’s house. (For film continuity, recall the article ‘Brown Mansion Destroyed’ during BTTFs original opening sequence, in the background.)
Of course, sometimes answering one question can simply raise others. For instance, in the original timeline, where Marty didn’t travel back to 1955… what might Doc’s “dream” of alt-1982 have consisted of? Surely not Marty, as Doc didn’t know him, yet a fire still must have occurred. (Related, does Twin Pines Mall makes more sense than Lone Pine Mall?) Perhaps these are the things we chalk up to the “Alternate Timelines” part of the title.
Honestly, the mythology works, as long as you don’t overthink it. (“Jigowatt” – not “jigawatt” – appears in issue 2 also.) It’s equally fun to see the film characters portrayed in different art styles. In fact, the end of issue one shows snapshots of 34 retailer exclusive covers made for the issue, which were done in ADDITION to the regular and subscription covers. (For the record, I own the cover by Amy Mebberson, who also creates Pocket Princesses. It includes a sign of a hill with a grade of 12%. I wonder if that’s intentionally 88% off of a hundred?)
Stay tuned next month for a look at the next set of “Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines” short stories. In the meantime, you can also read them yourself, if you pick up the trade issue. Or perhaps you own one of the original cover variants already? What did you think of these first stories, or did I perhaps leave out a detail that you enjoyed? Please do let me know, if you have the time.
Latest posts by Gregory Taylor (see all)
- Drawing on Time - Jughead’s Time Police: Archie Forever - December 18, 2019
- Drawing on Time - BTTF: Tales from the Time Train - November 20, 2019
- Drawing on Time - Sandglass of Summer: Episode Two - October 18, 2019