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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. |
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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!
Back to Back to the Future
Episode Studies