Back to the Future "Biff to the Future" Part 1 Back to the Future: Biff to the Future #1 IDW Story by Bob Gale and Derek Fridolfs Art by Alan Robinson Inks by Alan Robinson & Jaime Castro Colors by Maria Santaolalla Letters by Chris Mowry Cover A by Alan Robinson January 2017

 

After receiving the sports almanac from his future self, teenage Biff Tannen begins to turn things around.

 

Notes from the Back to the Future chronology

 

This issue opens on November 12, 1955 during the events of Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II, then continues with Biff's alternate timeline up to March 28, 1958.

 

Didja Know?

 

Biff to the Future was a six-issue comic book mini-series published by IDW in 2017. It tells the story of the alternate timeline created when Old Biff from 2015 gave his teen self in 1955 the 2000 edition of Gray's Sports Almanac, resulting in the dark 1985 discovered by Doc and Marty in Back to the Future Part II.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Old Biff

Teen Biff

Gertrude Tannen (dies in this issue)

Kid Tannen (Biff's father, mentioned only)

Uncle Lou (dies in this issue)

Frank Tannen (Biff's uncle, mentioned only)

Match

Skinhead

3-D

Lorraine Baines

George McFly

Stanford S. Strickland

Didja Notice?

The Biff to the Future logo of this mini-series features the fist of Old Biff's cane in place of the arrow seen in the traditional Back to the Future logo.

Page 1 depicts a scene from Back to the Future Part II, when Old Biff gives his teenage self the Gray's Sports Almanac. The shirts worn by each one are not quite colored correctly for those that were seen in the movie.

On page 2, on the morning of November 13, 1955, Biff's grandmother remarks that he stinks of manure. This might at first glance seem like a reference to Biff's crashing his car into a manure truck for the second time near the end of Back to the Future Part II, but that crash never occurred in this alternate timeline in which the BTTF2 Doc and Marty were not present in 1955 and thus never chased Biff to get the almanac away from him and he never had the second crash into the manure truck. I suppose Gertrude must be commenting on manure odor on Biff's clothes from his recently-returned car that was cleaned by Terry for a week after the first manure crash in Back to the Future. When Biff takes her to play the slots (possibly in Las Vegas or Reno), Gertrude even comments that his car stinks of manure, too.

The bruise on Biff's face on page 2 that he claims is from falling down some stairs is actually from having been decked by George McFly at the dance the night before, as depicted twice in Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II.

Apparently, it is almost a six hour drive to the city where Biff takes his grandma to play the slots, presumably a city in Nevada where gambling is legal. A number of seemingly fictitious casinos (at least for 1955) are seen on page 3: the Dugout, Coco Bongo (possibly borrowed from the name of a nightclub in the 1994 film The Mask), the Mint, Coin Castle, and Turf Club. A cowboy neon sign similar to that of the one used outside the Pioneer Club (known as Vegas Vic) in Las Vegas is also seen.

On page 3, panel 5, a bookie is scrawling the day's upcoming football games on a blackboard at the Turf Club: Washington Redskins vs. San Francisco 48ers, Chicago Bears vs. Los Angeles Rams, Detroit Lions vs. Pittsburg Steelers, and Green Bay Packers vs... (team not yet written down). These were all actual NFL games played on November 13, 1955. The Green Bay Packers game was against the Chicago Cardinals; Chicago had two NFL teams at the time, the Cardinals and the Bears...the Cardinals then moved to St. Louis and, after that, Arizona.

The players Marchibroda and Weed for the Steelers mentioned on page 3 were actual players, Ted Marchibroda (1931-2016) and Tad Weed (1933-2006).

On page 4, the Lions defeat the Steelers 31-28. This is the actual score of the game between the two teams on November 13, 1955.

On page 5, the Bears defeat the Rams 24-3. This is the actual score of the game between the two teams on November 13, 1955.

When Biff gets his grandma to agree to placing another bet for him to make up for the Bears vs. Rams bets she caused him to lose, she says she'll do it, but if he loses, he has to rub her feet all week. In Back to the Future Part II, when Biff is leaving to pick up his repaired/cleaned car, she told him she wants him to rub her feet some more.

On page 6, Biff tells his grandma to bet on Washington, "...like our fifth president...'I cannot tell a lie.'" The phrase "I cannot tell a lie" is (fictitiously) attributed to George Washington, the first president of the United States. The fifth president was James Monroe.

On page 7, the Redskins defeat the 49ers 7-0. This is the actual score of the game between the two teams on November 13, 1955.

Biff's grandma mentions his father on page 7. According to Back to the Future: The Game, Biff's father was Kid Tannen, a Hill Valley gang boss in the 1930s.

On page 9, Biff remarks that he had a "dirtball" uncle who bailed on "us". The only true uncle known for Biff is Frank Tannen, seen as a U.S. Army sergeant in the Back to the Future animated series episode "Marty McFly PFC".

"Uncle Lou" drives a Mercury. Mercury was an American automobile manufacturer 1938-2011.

This issue reveals that Biff made his first bundle of money when he was still 18 by taking a briefcase full of cash from the loan shark called "Uncle Lou", whom he killed. To be fair, it was self-defense and Lou also murdered Biff's grandmother first.

On page 20, Biff holds up a giant prop check for $1,000,000 after winning the amount betting on horse races the day he turned 21. The issuer of the check shows as Valley Racing Association. However, the amount of $1,000,000 is not quite accurate, as the original prop check from the film Back to the Future Part II was in the amount of $1,182,000.

    Also on page 20, the two copies of the Hill Valley Telegram both show the same date of November 6, 1955, declaring "Biff Wins Again" and "Biff Tannen, Luckiest Man on Earth". The date is over 3 years before he won anything and a week before he even had possession of the almanac!

    In "Biff to the Future" Part 2, another copy of the Hill Valley Telegram again has the same date even though it's supposed to be in 1960!