Telltale's Back to the Future Game getting a comic adaptation in May
Blind Sniper
Moderator
Cross posting this from the Back to the Future forums:
Tweet from Back to the Future account: Comic adaptation of @.telltalegames' #BackToTheFutureTheGame coming soon from @.IDWPublishing!
Back to the Future™ #1: Citizen Brown Comic [Regular Cover / Street Date: May 25, 2016!]
Time-travelling into comics directly out of Telltale's 2010 smash-hit episodic video game BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE GAME! When an empty time-traveling DeLorean suddenly shows up in 1986, Marty McFly quickly learns that his friend Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown is stranded in 1931 and possibly in mortal danger. Now it's up to Marty to return to the past to once again save Doc and the time-space continuum! But this time, will he be too late?
- Featuring the talents of Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale, writer Erik Burnham (Ghostbusters, Back to the Future), and artist Alan Robinson (V-Wars, Back to the Future).
- Adapting the hit video game from writers Bob Gale, Michael Stemmie, Andy Hartzell and Jonathan Straw for the first time!
That makes the second game Telltale game (first being The Wolf Among Us) to get a comic adaptation. It's neat to see Telltale's stories getting adapted into other media.
Comments
Definitely excited for this.
I've been reading IDW's Back to the Future comics, and I think they're excellent so far, so I'm really excited for this adaptation.
Plus, I'm hopefully optimistic that they'll bring some of the unseen ideas from the game into the ongoing comic. The current arc shows how Doc built the Time Train that he took to 1985 in Back to the Future Part III, and the next arc is called Continuum Conundrum, and features the DeLorean. Maybe the ongoing comic (or even the comic adaptation of the game) will show how Doc found the temporal duplicate DeLorean, or show what led to the events at the very end of Telltale's season.
COOL......
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Oh thats cool! I love BTTF and Telltales BTTF:TG (Which was my first Telltale game) so i might look into this.
Yeah, I agree it's pretty interesting to see Telltale getting more of their stories adapted into comics. I'm not a comic person myself, but it's neat to see Telltale getting recognition.
The Wolf comic must have been pretty successful.
I (think) it's from a different publisher, but still, it's neat to see stuff like this.
That's fantastic! Can't wait to see how it turns out. It makes me wonder if we can get a Telltale Jurassic Park comic or even Purcell adapting the Telltale episodes of Sam & Max into comic issues (he's probably way too busy for that now that he's working at Pixar though.)
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I'd have figured they were doing a BTTF comic in particular in order to tie into the 30th anniversary, but it seems a bit late for that - still, though, it's cool to see this.
FreelancePoliceFan11 actually brought up an interesting point - what other Telltale games would you want to see turn into comics? I think Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse or Tales from the Borderlands would be cool to see.
Yeah. Fables: The Wolf Among Us was by the DC imprint Vertigo, and Back to the Future: Citizen Brown is by IDW Publishing.
I believe the reason this is happening now is because IDW got the Back to the Future license in 2015 and started with a 4 issue limited series in October 2015. That series, Back to the Future: Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines, sold really well, and was revealed to be changed to an ongoing series in issue 3 in December 2015. They extended Back to the Future: Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines to 5 issues, and are starting Back to the Future: Continuum Conundrum in issue 6.
So, since the limited series sold really well, it looks like IDW is going all out with the license in 2016 (not only do they have the now ongoing series and the adaptation of Telltale's game, they also are releasing the trade paperback of Back to the Future: Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines, plus a cover gallery that collects all of the alternate covers for those comics, and a new card game titled Back to the Future: An Adventure Through Time).
Bob Gale, the co-creator of Back to the Future, is working on the stories and co-writing the dialog in some issues of the comics. He also had input on the story on Telltale's game, so it's possible (I hope!) that he intends to use the ideas from the game in the on-going series.
They are using ideas from multiple sources (some used ideas from draft scripts, some used ideas that the Bobs (Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis) talked about in interviews, one already used a small idea from Telltale's game (the layout of Hill Valley in the 1930s, including the gazebo in the center of Courthouse Square), and one relied on characters and events introduced in the animated series). The first arc takes place in the timeline during the films, and in timelines before the films in some stories. The second arc shows that Doc has a DeLorean again, so it's very likely that they'll use Telltale's explanation for that.
25th anniversary? You mean 30th?
Yep, you are right.
The late celebration seems to be a Telltale tradition, as they also celebrated Sam & Max's 25th anniversary the following April. :P
I'd love to see comic adaptations of Telltale's Sam & Max episodes, but I doubt that will happen. Steve Purcell mentioned that he wouldn't adapt a comic story to television again if given the chance (which is a shame, as Bad Day on the Moon was one of the best episodes of the animated series), so he probably wouldn't want to adapt an existing story to a comic either.
If IDW Publishing still has the Jurassic Park license (they had it in 2010), it's possible that they might adapt Telltale's game if Back to the Future: Citizen Brown sells well (and if they still intend to release Jurassic Park comics, which is unlikely as the license has apparently been dormant in comic book format for six years).
IDW Publishing (the company that's adapting Back to the Future: The Game into comic form) actually created a Borderlands comic in 2014, so it's possible if Back to the Future: Citizen Brown sells well. I really liked Tales from the Borderlands, so I'd most likely pick up the adaptation if it did get made.
The Walking Dead is the obvious property that would work well for comic translation, but I really doubt that Robert Kirkman would have that happen as it would be bringing the characters and events directly into the comic universe, and he likes to keep the adaptations separate (although with their popularity, and the integration of Michonne into Telltale's game to tie the game closer to the comic universe, you never know).
The first issue isn't out yet (it will be released next month), but they just put the second issue up for pre-order.
They're going to be doing this over five parts, just like the game. Each issue is $1 more than the regular Back to the Future comics, so they're likely going to be bigger than the usual 24 pages. Though, it will still be interesting to see how they tell each episode in a single issue.
There is now a preview of the first five pages of the first issue of the comic available here.
It's actually pretty interesting how they're adapting it, as they're taking out the far-fetched adventure logic style puzzles (no more Einstein sniffing for locations that are miles away). Plus, they've actually incorporated some of the criticism of the story from fans that I've heard over the years (like introducing Jennifer at the start of the story, as they did in the first film, so that people new to the franchise will know who she is when she appears later in the story). One of my biggest gripes about the story was the cartoonish nature of Marty's disguise when he goes back to the speakeasy, as he's easily recognizable yet only Emmett recognizes him. I felt that it would be an easy fix to make it more believable simply by having Marty actually use makeup and prosthesis, like an enlarged nose, for his disguise, but we'll see if the creative team decides to change that aspect of the story once they get to it. Whatever they do, it should be interesting, as this story already is noticeably the same, yet differs enough to make it worth reading to see the changes (plus since it's only 5 issues at $5 a piece, it won't take as much money to do so as it would if you wanted to read the entire comic adaptation of The Wolf Among Us).
Oh, and the third issue is already up for pre-order as well. The comic is releasing monthly, so issue #1 is coming out this month, issue #2 is coming out in June, issue #3 is coming out in July. Issue #4 and #5 should be out in August and September if the release dates stay consistent, but no release dates have been announced for the last two issues yet.
I’m holding out hope they’ll release it as a mass collection such as a graphic novel.
I’ve been hoping for a sequel to the game for a while, the ending left me wondering what happens next. Maybe if we don’t get a second season of the game, we might at least get one in the comics?
I thought you were new but your original crew, welcome back and here is a upvote to start your collection. :P
The comic's current arc (Continuum Conundrum) takes place in 1986, albeit two months before Telltale's game (which honestly is a bit of a strange idea, since Telltale's game opens with Doc missing for 6 months, although they never outright said that Marty himself was missing Doc for those 6 months, just that Doc has been gone that long - which would technically still be true if he never settled back into Hill Valley by the end of the arc, which is pretty certain).
If the next arc (which should begin in October, if they keep up the regular release schedule) follows that one, then it probably will take place after Telltale's game. It would be awesome, since they're adapting Telltale's game, if the next arc takes place immediately after the events of the game, showing where Doc and Marty were headed at the end of the game.
They're releasing a trade paperback for their first arc next week, and have hinted that the second arc will also get a trade paperback sometime after it concludes in July, so it's pretty likely (although not certain) that Back to the Future: Citizen Brown will get a trade paperback as well.
I read the first Citizen Brown comic, as well as all of the BTTF comics by IDW so far, and I really like them. The Citizen Brown comic has different dates then the game, and it changes some aspects (Officer Danny Parker fails to stop Doc from breaking out of prison instead of the DeLorean getting stuck in the middle of a gunfight between him and Kid Tannen, among other things). They didn't mention the estate sale, and Edna mentioned that Marty looks familiar, so this might be in the timeline after Marty and Doc get back to 1986 (which, if it is, is actually a smart thing to do to as it would easily explain the differences - and would actually be pretty cool, since it would be the first time we followed Marty's adventures after the original Marty already changed the timeline.
They also explained a whole bunch of stuff in the main comic series - which is awesome. I really like how they explained how Doc made the time train in the 1890s. Part of it is something that fans guessed that Doc did, but that attempt failed. The way that Doc solved the problem is really awesome, and something that no-one guessed, yet fits in the universe of BTTF perfectly.
Oh, and the next part of the arc of the main series takes place in 2035, and is said to be an awful future where Doc and Marty have to contend with Griff Tannen. It will likely not explain the temporal duplicate DeLorean from the game (as it takes place 10 years too late for that), but it's possible it will have to do with the future that is hinted at in the end of the game.
Nice to see a comic adaption of a Telltlae game instead of vice versa.
The last issue of the comic comes out on the 28th, and interestingly - next month starts a new arc where time is shifting, and 1986 Doc and Marty aren't causing it. Here's a synopsis: "WHO IS MARTY McFLY?! He's the guy caught in a timestorm, that's who. Reality is shifting, and Marty and Doc not only don't know why or how... they don't even know that it's happening. Who else has a time machine... and why is it all Marty's fault?""
I wonder if that ties into the end of Telltale's game?
Also, there are quite a few differences between the comic and the game. Once the last comic comes out I'll make up a list here for those who are interested.