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Back to the Future
"Hard Time" Part 3
Back to the Future #21
IDW
Story by John Barber and Bob Gale
Script by John Barber
Art by Marcelo Ferreira
Inks by Maria Keane
Colors by Jose Luis Rio
Letters by Shawn Lee
Cover by Marcelo Ferreira
June 2017 |
Marty and
Professor Irving are stranded in 1972 when the DeLorean
disappears!
Notes from the Back to the Future chronology
This issue opens on June 23, 1972.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Professor Irving
Marty McFly
Doc Brown
Galileo
Stanford S. Strickland
Irene Strickland
Joey Baines
Lorraine McFly
Doug McFly
Sam Baines
Stella Baines
Linda McFly
George McFly
Biff Tannen
Match
Skinhead
3-D
Didja Notice?
On page 4, panel 5, Marty says "awasy" when he means "away".
Presumably, a letterer's mistake.
On page 5, Marty remarks that if someone had seen the flying
DeLorean in 1972, they would think it was some kind of Evel
Knievel thing.
Evel Knievel (1938-2007) was an American stunt artist who
performed spectacular stunts using motorcycles, cars, and
even a steam powered rocket.
On page 7, it appears that the
burnt ruins of the Brown mansion are still standing (though
fenced off) in 1972 (the place burned down in 1962).
Doc's dog in 1972 is
Galileo.
On page 10, the 1972 Doc tells
Professor Irving that the anti-gravity experiment he just
witnessed improved upon what he and other scientists did
with the U.S.S. Eldridge. It seems that Doc is
referring to the so-called Philadelphia Experiment, alleged
to have taken place in 1943, an attempt by scientists
working for the U.S. Navy to turn the naval Cannon-class
destroyer escort invisible. The story is generally
considered to be a hoax...but maybe not in a universe where
Doc Brown exists!
Doc later refers to his anti-gravity device as an
"inertial buoyancy displacement convector" in
"Time Served" Part 2.
On page 11, Marty sees some protesters in front of the clock
tower shouting, ”Hey, hey, ho, ho, Tricky Dick has got to
go!” and “One, two, three, four, we don’t want your stinking
war!” These were actual chants used by protesters against
President Richard Nixon in 1972 (though some say the second
chant always ended with "fucking war", not the cleaned-up
"stinking" version sometimes seen in movies...and comics!).
"Tricky Dick" was a derogatory nickname for Nixon coined by
his detractors. The war they protested was the U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam Civil War.
In panel 2 of page 11, the gas station in Courthouse Square
in 1972 is charging 52¢ a gallon. That's actually rather
high for 1972, when gas averaged around 40¢ a gallon by the
end of the year.
Marty walks by Roy Jr.'s Electronics in 1972's Courthouse
Square. It was Roy's Records in 1955 and The Third Eye
metaphysical book store in 1985 in
Back to the Future.
In the last panel of page 11, Mr. Strickland is leaving the
Essex Theater with his mother after a showing of The
Godfather. The Godfather is a 1972 crime drama
film that won the Best Picture Academy Award that year.
Strickland's mother's name is revealed to be
Irene Strickland in Back to the Future: The Game.
Uncle Joey calls Marty "Little M" in 1972 when Marty was
about 4 years old.
On page 16, Dougie is playing with what may be a G.I. Joe
action figure.
On page 16, George drives a
Volkswagen
Beetle.
On page 19, Marty mentions his carpet fire incident
to Joey. This incident was first mentioned in
Back to the Future.
Here, Marty reveals it happened when he was eight years old,
so that would have been around 1976.
On page 20, Marty reveals his birthday is June 12. His birth
year would have been 1968.
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