IDW’s Back to the Future #1 Review

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sending you back... To the future! Hello and

welcome to The Pull Bag. This is episode 115

and we are releasing this on a very special date.

First off, it's a Thursday edition of The Pull

Bag. Secondly, this is November 5th, 2015. Do

you know what this means? It has been 60 years

to the day when Doc Brown invented the flux capacitor.

In honor of that, we're here to review IDW Publishing's

Back to the Future number one of four. I am your

host, Dave Jordan -Mike. Joining me is... Steve

Megatron Phillips. Hello, how are you? Good.

Doug Abel was gonna be here, but we left him

in the alternate 1985 so he can waste his way...

You mean the alternate 2015? Where they actually

had flying cars? No. No. I'm joking. I know that

those are two different timelines. Wait, wait,

wait, wait a second. Don't start doing that.

Don't confuse me. The alternate 1985 where he'll

be wasting his life away at Biff's casino and

tavern and whatever else. The funny thing is

I recently watched, I don't know if you've seen

it yet, it's on Netflix. I know it's on iTunes,

you can buy it, but you can watch the actual

documentary on Netflix. The back in time documentary

that they put out. was I think Adam F Goldberg

had something to do with it but they put out

this documentary commemorating 30 years and in

it Bob Gale and a few of the others like Steven

Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis and everybody else

is talking about shopping moving around to the

studios back in the day the first Back to the

Future film. All the other studios told him oh

no just take it to Disney all the other studios

thought it was a fun light -hearted warm movie

but it was a disney movie oh we can't do it but

disney can do it they say in the documentary

disney took one look at it and they're like his

mother falls in love with him we're disney we

can't do that uh... i've learned that i'm so

hilarious that every other studio thought it

was lighthearted and warm and disney is like

you know there's potential incest in here right

where disney we can't touch that uh... so we

are here to talk about back to the future number

one from idw publishing I wasn't sure if this

was gonna be a new ongoing series. I wasn't sure

if it was gonna be a limited thing, but as of

right now, as far as I know, it is a four -issue

mini -series. And obviously, if the numbers are

good for IDW, they'll do more, hopefully. But

this is, it's called Wild Tales and Alternate

Timelines. So there's a letter in the back of

the book, in the back of the print edition, Of

this issue written by Bob Gale and in it he states

that the comic will take place We've already

seen the events of the film. There's no reason

for them to do a comic, you know trending the

same ground right exactly, so they're going to

do things around before and after and the future

and all that stuff with these four issues here

and He says in this letter that one of the most

interesting stories was that we never get to

tell is how did Marty and Doc? Actually meet

so that was the first story that they wanted

to do So these these four issues in the miniseries

are going to be broken into two stories first

story for issue number one is when Marty met

Emmett story by Bob Gale script by Bob Gale and

John Barber Art by... I have to zoom in on that.

The art is by Brent Schoonover. I hope I'm saying

his name right. Inks are done by David Witt and

the colors are by Kelly Fitzpatrick. The second

story is Looking for a Few Good Scientists. Story

by Bob Gale. Script by Eric Burnham. Art by Dan

Schoening. And colors by Luis Antonio Delgado.

Letters by Sean Lee. Production assistance by

Tommy Long. Edits by Tom Walz. So... The coolest

thing about this mini -series here is you have

the writer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at

IDW, Tom Waltz, doing the editing on this book.

That's amazing. So the cool thing here, and IDW

has done this a couple of times. I don't know

how often they've done it. I know they've done

it in recent times that I've known them. When

they launched the Jim and the Holograms comic

book, there was 12 total covers you could get.

For the comic to celebrate its release well back

to the future. I don't know why it's not 35,

but 34 retailer exclusive covers great Scott

there are a ton of Covers for this book and actually

it's what's really cool and interesting about

this is one of the One of the covers one of the

retail covers. Actually, I know the people. Killin's

Games Comics Toys Exclusive Art by Derrick Robertson.

Colors by Diego Rodriguez. Killin's Games Comics

and Toys Exclusive is Killin Enterprises. It's

over in Springfield, Illinois. It's where I first

heard about Pixel Dan and Jason Duvall and all

that stuff. So it's the Pop Culture Network guys.

So I thought that was hilarious, but we essentially

have three covers here for everybody in general.

We have the main number one cover. We have these

cover. We have, let's see, what's it say up there?

We have the sub cover A and then we have the

sub cover B. The main cover is Marty, Doc, Clara,

Needles, and the DeLorean with the Libyans. The

sub A cover is Marty and Doc with Einstein and

Marty's amping out to the amp. And the other

sub cover is Marty and Doc and Clara with a tricycle

version of the DeLorean. What's your favorite

cover out of the three main ones here? The one

with the DeLorean and the Libyans Just the most

detailed one out of the bunch and I just really

like the way the DeLorean looks in the chat.

Yep Absolutely I'm probably Let me see here.

What else is there? Save the clock tower. Let's

see. Raelike Manor Goldate Wilson. Yeah, I'll

probably go with that one too. Like you said,

it's the most detailed. It's the most one that

has everything really full in scope on it. So

we start off with how Marty met Emmett. We start

off in 1885, where Doc is working on something

in .04 gigawatts. That's it. An extremely disappointing

outcome. Clara comes in with the two boys, Jules

and Vern, and they go and tell them the story

of how... The Vaughan bronze now the Browns came

to Hill Valley how they had a house the house

burned down First of all I have to ask you. What

do you think of the art style on the characters

of the the Brown family here? um You know I I

actually kind of enjoy it mm -hmm Just because

they they kind of Don't know they kind of show

That antiquated look mm -hmm But it also kind

of I don't know I you didn't really get to see

them all that that close and I think I'm fine

with that because You know, it's not really pertinent

at this point But I Like the detail on dock.

Yeah. Yeah, the detail on dock is great Like

the characters I like that they get the colors

right for Clara You do see a bit of the boys

up close and then we get into the like I said

we get into the backstory where the house burned

down and we come to present day where You know

The auxiliary structure is just there now and

and we get to a thing where, you know, occupied

by Emmett Lathrop Brown, me, and me alone. Until

one day when everything changed. October 2nd,

1982, 1316. We get Marty in his garage. I don't

think we've ever seen Marty's garage. I don't

remember seeing the inside of it in the movie

or anything. Marty's sitting there playing his

guitar and of course Needles and his little groupies

come up and They need to borrow a interquitter

tube from him Basically, they're just gonna take

it from him and he goes to stop them it breaks

and They're like you better come up with one

by four o 'clock tomorrow or or else and of course

they call you know Needles calls him chicken

And we get into the whole thing. Nobody calls

me chicken needles. Nobody. What do you think

of Marty's characterization here? It took me

a second to figure out, you know, I mean, I knew

he was younger, but it took me a second to figure

it out. But it kind of is an interesting way

to show the introduction of him going towards

Doc Brown. I like how, and of course this is

being written and scripted by Gail and Barbara,

but I like how they're not taking liberties with

the writing. Where instead of coming up with

something else other than nobody calls me chicken

needles, nobody, like that's a direct line from

the movie or from the film. So that's what I

love about this so far is that they're pretty

much, you know, putting all the The classic back

to the future lines in it because Marty even

says after after needles in his group leave Perfect

just perfect So he goes all over town looking

for these tubes And we come to a point where

we find out that ELB enterprises has bought all

of them He's like that's dr. Brown he goes to

the house and he figures out the riddle and I

love the interactions here hello oh hello this

is a recording oh please go away do not push

the button the second time you have been warned

I love the hints that he drops throughout it

yep absolutely clearly you were not one to foresee

that and you know 124C and that's what the code

is gets Marty through the gate he knocks on the

door and he thinks he can just break the window

but then he realizes oh hmm you know that's not

who you are McFly think McFly think the padlock

isn't gonna open because of some wordplay unless

No entry and the key is behind the no entry sign

But what I don't understand is why is he going

through? The is that the door or the window that

looks like the window is the window Well, if

you get the key, why is he? Going through the

window. Nobody knows So he comes into Doc's lab

and there's this whole thing there's a spider

-man looking net and he gets caught up in the

net and He's like, what kind of game is this

guy playing anyway? So he throws his skateboard

and the skateboard rolls and hits the reset button

and basically drops him out of the net and This

is around 1542 in the day. So he's got 15 minutes

to get this thing to needles and Einstein comes

up and basically Pounces on Marty And Doc's like

hmm congratulations you passed my test and you

are they make the introductions again like you

said I like the the the style of art here on

dock at first when I first read it was a little

off -putting because it's not exactly Christopher

Lloydish but it works for the for the style of

a comic and I really let's face it Marty's hair

in these these pages could be a little bit darker

because that I don't remember his hair being

orange but It's very colorful It's not entirely

accurate. It's very comic drawn, but yeah You

think maybe the colors are because the lab is

so dark I mean if you open up to that you know

when you open up to the big first splash page

of the lab It's all Blues and greens and with

only a few bright yellow balloons, so I figure

maybe they're Using the colors here for the hair

and in the in this things to kind of offset the

darker background Maybe I don't know I don't

have a clue So Marty and duck meet and they you

know get along and Marty says oh well I Didn't

really just come here for the job. I more so

came for that and You know they're like oh and

Marty's like so there's no job, and he's like

well there is if you want one and they shake

hands and Apparently Doc Brown only needed the

box For the tubes they didn't actually need the

tubes themselves. He's like He's like Marty's

like hey about those tubes. Oh those things.

I just needed a box that size for my static -o

-matic electric hair chair I Dumped the tubes

in the trash can outside Huh, so I could uh never

mind. Hey doc. Thanks he goes back to needles

gets him a tube and goes back to doc and we go

back to the past and the boys are asleep and

He says let's see Doc and Clara. He says, and

you would have never been bored by your old man's

many tales. He's not even three yet, Emmet. You

can't expect Vern to stay awake through a story

like that. Well, of course not. Good thing I

have a million tales, Clara, and all the time

in the world to tell them. I like this first

story. I thought it was interesting. The art

style is something you gotta get used to, folks,

though. I agree. It took me a bit of getting

used to because it's just like if you're gonna

do a story and have art with that centered around

Marty and Doc, around the frame of the films,

for me they need to look more like the actors.

I mean, if you're gonna do what you do with Doc

back during the Manhattan Project days, which

is what we'll talk about next here in the second

story, but if you're gonna do something like

that, well, that's fine. You can do whatever

the heck you want to with Doc then, because that

was when he was younger and we never saw that.

Overall, this first story, I give it a four out

of five. What about you? I would kind of agree,

because it's kind of a nice touch and kind of

an original tale to... Yeah, I mean that's that's

actually kind of a cool way of going about it

Absolutely All right, let's see the second story

in this first issue is as I said before looking

for a few good scientists and so The first story

is how we met how Marty and Doc met It's kind

of a Marty origin kind of giving you it's not

his origin from the movie that we see but it's

you know This is three years before the movie.

So the first story is like hey, this is Marty.

Hey, he's always had problems with needles blah

blah We're in the second story It's all about

Doc Brown and when he was trying to get on the

Manhattan Project and he worked at a university

The California Institute of Technology, 1943.

And he goes to Robert, whoever he is, and he's

like, Emmet, what? Don't you have a class to

teach? I love the interaction here. Or Doc Brown

says, it's fine. I have them working on the Jacobian

conjecture. You don't teach a math course. Which

means they'll be more than thoroughly occupied.

Now, back to my point. I know, Robert. I know

everything. And it's all about him not being

selected to go through the, you know, top secret

think tank and to benefit the war effort. You

know, my credentials, my name should have been

at the top of such a list, Robert. You should

have bust me off ages ago. I'm not going to insult

your intelligence here, Emmet. There is something

going on, something highly classified. Your name

did come up, but I knew it. And, you know, they

go on to talk about how some of his lifestyle

choices, like the Robert guy says, you know,

he goes, You are fully qualified for a position,

but well, the vetting process involves an interview

at your home with military brass, bureaucrats,

possibly psychologists, and once they see your

apartment, look, I just don't want you to be

disappointed. So, we go back to Doc Brown's apartment,

and we have these people talking with him, and...

And you know they observed that oh you must have

really really good needlepoint skills and stepped

on your mail and everything else and these guys

come to realize that this is not actually his

apartment. It's his landlady's and they are in

his real apartment and he's like Gary Scott and

he's like but what are you doing here? It was

intimated that I failed the interview. No, I

said we'd be in touch and basically They are

Going to allow him to be on the Manhattan Project

and he's like, oh, well who's up for jello? the

second story I don't know I Like seeing Doc Brown's

past, but I just don't know if that second story

is that like exciting Want us I want to see more

stuff like the first story I want to see more

stuff with Marty and Doc and and all that whether

it's in the future in the past wherever that

that's what I want to see out of this comic I'm

all for Doc Brown origin story and how he accomplished

certain things, but Overall, I was not impressed

with the talk Brown story in this issue Yeah,

I I wasn't that impressed with it. But again,

it kind of plays into that video game that came

out a couple years ago And the the aesthetics

that went with it so yeah, I Mean I like the

art in the second story. I like the art a lot

I think the arts great and the story in itself

is okay. It's just It's more They almost portray

him as the absent -minded professor I Mean don't

get me wrong Doc Brown is is a super genius,

and he does you know have a lot you know, to

offer and everything else, but it just, I don't

know, it's just the whole switch -a -roo with

the apartment and everything else, and I don't

know, I, particularly after reading it two or

three different times, I still couldn't wrap

my head around that story. I don't know. For

that one, I'm probably gonna give it a two and

a half out of five. What about you? I'll probably

give it a three and a half, even though nothing

really exciting happened. It kind of showed how...

Intelligent he was and kind of you know showed

His drive to do you know the Manhattan Project

for instance Among other things so Absolutely,

so we're gonna take a quick break We've already

read the comic, but we're gonna take a quick

break come back with some final thoughts and

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then check out Altered Geek Unleashed, where

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Geeky with the Altered Geeks, every Friday on

the Geekcast Radio Network. Alright folks, we

are back here inside the pull bag. Even though

we weren't too high on the second story on issue

number one, what is your overall feeling for

this first issue out of four? Not bad. I would

give it... You said out of four? No. What is

your own... The mini -series is going to have

four issues, so what was your overall opinion

of the first issue? Not bad overall. I kind of

am excited to see what they do with it when it

gets further down into the storyline. Yeah, I'm

right there with you. I am very excited. I'm

glad that IDW is doing this, nobody else. I'm

glad that Bob Gale is kind of steering the ship

and writing the stuff and all that stuff. It's

going to be really interesting, so I'm kind of

really looking forward to seeing what the second

issue does. I do know that number one, as of

this recording, actually before this recording

actually happened, number one has gone to a second

printing already. It did that well. I'm sure

if number two number three number four all go

to second printings I'm sure we'll get more whether

it's another miniseries whether it's a number

five six seven eight whatever it is I don't know

But I see you know this is just another franchise

that IDW can notch on their belt With you know

for me doing doing very well with it That's gonna

do it for us here inside the pull bag coming

up in November We've got some really cool stuff.

Also this week we had released our last day on

the record, Transformers last day on the records

review. We may or may not be doing this month,

it may be a little while before you do this,

we may be pulling your bag onto the base with

Transformers, Combiner, Hunters, and Windblade

number 5. I do know that Joe and I are going

to get to TMNT 47049 and TMNT 50. and then coming

up in december it's dark side december where

we go from episode 119 to episode 124 which will

be star wars the throng trilogy star wars dark

empire we're going to take a break and do batman

beyond 2 .0 volume 3 mark of the phantasm and

then we'll do star wars shattered empire which

is the uh that's the um the the comic tied between

episode six and episode seven and after that

we'll do our top five uh... star wars comics

for episode one twenty four uh... so that's what's

going on for the end of the year for the pull

bag uh... what have you got going on with your

other shows keep in mind this will be november

fifth twenty fifteen uh... well of course always

recording altered geek uh... recording Fit Ready

Go with my wife. I think that's pretty much it.

And then of course, working on some things for

GCRN behind the scenes. Awesome. Intint. That's

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