Back to the Future "Time Served" Part 1 Back to the Future #22 IDW Story by John Barber and Bob Gale Script by John Barber Art by Marcelo Ferreira & Athila Fabbio Inks by Maria Keane Colors by Jose Luis Rio Letters by Tom B. Long Cover by Marcelo Ferreira July 2017

 

Marty and Joey get dragged into a plot by Biff and his gang to steal Mrs. Brown-Ellsworth's hidden fortune.

 

Notes from the Back to the Future chronology

 

This issue opens on June 23, 1972, immediately after the events of "Hard Time" Part 3.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Didja Notice?

Flyers advertising Tannen Auto Detailing are seen on pages 3-5. This is, of course, Biff's business as seen in the "improved" 1985 timeline created in Back to the Future.

On page 7, Biff refers to Marty as "...the sailor kid, with the life preserver!" In Back to the Future, in 1955, Marty's 1985 orange vest jacket was mistaken for a life preserver.

The hippy with a VW van Professor Irving hooks up with is the same one the DeLorean almost ran into when it arrived in 1972 in "Hard Time" Part 2.

Page 11 reveals that Biff is married in 1972. Her name and physical appearance are not revealed.

Biff's wife shouts at him from inside their house, "Be home before midnight--I don't want you waking me up when you stomp around like a drunk bigfoot." Bigfoot is a cryptozoological hominid some people believe lives (mostly) in the American northwest.

Biff drives a 1960s-era Cadillac DeVille.

When Joey suggests that Biff wasn't able to stand up to George on page 13, Biff says, "All of the sudden, you think you're Steve McQueen?" and Joey responds, "After taking that talk from George McFly, you sound like Minnie Mouse." Steve McQueen (1930-1980) was a popular anti-hero actor in the 1960s-70s. Minnie Mouse is a female cartoon mouse character from the Disney studio.

On page 14, the hippies in the van sing "Kumbaya" (Come by Here). This is an African-American spiritual song that probably originated in the southeastern United States in the early 1900s.

On page 15, Doc blows up the auxiliary Leyden oscillator on some electronic device he is working on. The Leyden oscillator is likely a reference to a device that distributes electricity in waves from a battery (referring to a Leyden jar, a device that stores an electric charge).

On page 16, Doc appears to be using a wireless phone of his own design.

On page 17, Matchstick remarks on the fire that burnt down the Brown mansion, assuming it was done by Doc for the insurance money. The real story behind the fire was revealed in "The Doc Who Never Was".

On page 18, Biff tells his gang if they could find the lost $85,000 of the Brown money it would be 12,000 a piece, split the five ways. Actually, that would leave an extra $15,000 if his gang fell for it. Was Biff just bad with his math or was he planning to embezzle the extra from his gang for himself?

On page 19, Professor Irving looks forward to relaxing in his bed while watching Nova until he falls asleep. Nova is an American science show that runs on PBS channels that has been running since 1974.