Back to the Future "Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!" Part 2 Back to the Future: Tales from the Time Train #2 IDW Story by Bob Gale and John Barber Script by John Barber Art by Megan Levens Colors by Charlie Kirchoff Letters by Shawn Lee Cover A by Megan Levens January 2018

 

Doc Brown and his family visit the 1939 New York World's Fair.

 

Read the story summary at Futurepedia

 

Notes from the Back to the Future chronology

 

This story opens on September 21, 1939.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Doc Brown

Jules

Verne

Clara

Einstein

police officer

Fritz

Karl Heinrich

Albert Einstein (mentioned only)

Prince Rufio

Queen Jorgansen (mentioned only)

Miss Kendall

Lawrence

Marty McFly (mentioned only)

Jennifer Parker (mentioned only)

Didja Notice?

On cover A of this issue, Doc is seen looking at a map of the 1939 World's Fair fairgrounds. The front image on the map is from the actual map created by illustrator Tony Sarg (1880-1942), though the actual front image on the map was square, not rectangular.
Doc holding 1939 World's Fair map	Actual cover image of 1939 World's Fair map (image from disneydocs.net)

When Doc tries to bring Einstein into the fair with the rest of his family on page 4, a police officer tells him dogs are not allowed, "Unless you're a big shot or royalty, like the queen of Barataria." Barataria is not a real world nation, but is presumably a nod The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria, an 1889 opera by Gilbert and Sullivan. Later in this issue, Queen Jorgansen of that nation is mentioned and we meet her dog, Prince Rufio, who looks similar to Doc's dog Einstein (but none of these characters appeared in the musical).

Doc tells the police officer that the train he and his family arrived in (the time train) is a special exhibition train from Penn Station. This refers to the New York City train station called Pennsylvania Station, named for its original builder, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

On page 5, Doc calls his dog Fido to the police officer instead of Einstein. In 1939, Albert Einstein had already defected from Nazi Germany to the United States (as of 1933) and was well-known and popular among the American public. Perhaps Doc felt that someone who had named their dog Einstein would be seen as an insult to the great scientist at this time. The name Fido (Latin for "faithful") became a popular name for dogs when Abraham Lincoln became president of the United States in 1861 and the public was informed he had a beloved dog named Fido, who was kept at Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois home rather than at the White House.

Also on page 5, Doc references the Pennsylvania S1. This is the experimental duplex locomotive built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1939. It was on display at the World's Fair that year, just as Doc says, and was designed by Robert Lowey (1893-1986) as stated in these pages.

On page 7, German agents Karl and Fritz comment on Mayor LaGuardia's assertion to der führer that their nation is not welcome here (in New York). Der führer (German for "the leader") was, at the time, Adolf Hitler. Fiorello La Guardia (1882-1947) was the extremely popular mayor of New York City at the time. He warned of the evil of Germany's Nazi regime and its leader, Hitler, as early as 1934.

On page 8, Doc purchases 10 copies of World's Fair Comics #1. This is a real comic book published to promote the New York World's Fair. Originally priced at 15 cents, it is currently worth tens of thousands of dollars in near mint condition. In "Emmett Brown Visits the Future", Doc purchased a stack of Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) in 1938 and sold one in 2015 for 2.5 million dollars.

On page 8, Doc tells his family he has a plan laid out for seeing the World's Fair exhibits, starting with the farming village and the Wonder Bread pavilion. He is referring to the "Electrified Farm" and a pavilion that demonstrated every phase of baking Wonder Bread and Hostess Cakes. We will get a glimpse of the Wonder Bread pavilion in "Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!" Part 4.

On pages 12-13, the giant cash register, bumper boats, RCA Communications pavilion, and Elektro the robot were all actual exhibits at the 1939 World's Fair.

On page 18, Doc tells Clara that he had dreamed of visiting the Chicago World's Fair when he was younger. He is referring to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, also known as the Century of Progress International Exposition.