The beloved classic Back to The Future celebrated its 30th Anniversary last week, and most fans couldn't have asked for a better present than director Robert Zemeckis revealing that a Back to the Future remake will never happen, as long as both he and screenwriter Bob Gale are alive. The director and writer's contracts with Universal gave them all of the rights to the franchise, which Bob Gale is using to create a new comic book series through IDW, which will debut in October. During an interview with Comic Book Resources, Bob Gale revealed that Universal came to him with the idea of putting a comic book together set in the Back to The Future, although this story doesn't revolve around time travel, while answering questions fans have had for the past 30 years.

"They came back to me with some story pitches, but they were overly focused on time travel and didn't feel like they were really "BTTF." So that got me thinking about what we could do in a comic series that would fit squarely in the "BTTF Universe" but not feel like an attempt to do "BTTF Part 4" or "imitation BTTF" or "BTT: The Clone Saga." The answer was based in the movies, particularly Back to the Future Part II, in which we see two sequences that happen "in between" the existing 1955 scenes from "Part 1": The bit in which Biff gets his cleaned-up car back and then harasses Lorraine as she picks up her dress for the dance; and the conceit that there were two Martys doing different things during the dance. It was also squarely based in all the Superman comics I'd read growing up. In "Superboy," we got the equivalent of a "prequel" series. And Mort Weisinger presented all of those "imaginary stories" in the '60s, in which Lex Luthor killed Superman and all kinds of other wonderfully warped stuff. These, by the way, were part of the original inspiration for the 1985-A story in Back to the Future Part II. I also remembered Kurt Busiek's "Untold Tales of Spider-Man" which filled out things that took place between the early adventures. Much the way "Part II" showed different, unseen aspects of the original movie, the comic will do the same. And then there were the fan questions. Robert Zemeckis and I had been asked many times, 'How did Marty and Doc meet?' and 'How did Doc's house actually burn down?' So I thought that a series focused on tales in these areas, dealing with the characters as we know them from the movies, answering some of these questions, would be worthwhile. Maybe these stories could enhance or fill in things from the trilogy."

He added that the first issue will be set in the year 1982, when Marty McFly and Doc Brown first met, and that the second issue will reveal why Doc's house burned down.

"In the first issue, our lead story will recount how Marty and Doc first met in 1982. The second story shows how Doc got involved with the Manhattan Project during World War II. John came up with a clever framing device which we'll use throughout the series which involves Doc's family from the end of "Part III," and the first story features someone you may not have expected to see. As we progress, we'll try to use characters from the movies or their relatives whenever it makes sense, as well as include "easter egg" trilogy references. In #2, we'll pose an answer to the question of how Doc's house burned down."

We also have the artwork for the first issue, which features some iconic imagery from the original Back to The Future movie. Do you think a comic book series overseen by Bob Gale is better than a remake or even a sequel? Let us know what you think below, and stay tuned for more on the Back to The Future comics from IDW.