Tue May 12, 2009 12:37PM11 comments ›
Tue May 12, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
Comic writer stopped by TSA at airport about a script for BOOM!
Comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at LAX this past weekend when they discovered inflammatory material in a script for Sable’s new BOOM Studios miniseries Unthinkable. The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type “unthinkable” terrorist scenarios that now are coming true.
Sable was detained while traveling from LAX to NYC to attend a signing for the premiere of Unthinkable #1 at Jim Hanley’s Universe this Wednesday, May 13th.
Fans and friends were made aware of the TSA detention when Sable Twittered about the events after he was released.
Sable wrote BOOM! Studios a more in-depth version of the encounter to release to the public:
"Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then "discovered" the script for UNTHINKABLE #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.
“The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.
“I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer’s scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.
“In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium.”
It's a good thing the TSA didn't know that Mark Sable's destination, Jim Hanley's Universe, is right across the street from the Empire State Building. Bad enough it was a script for BOOM!
Jump to comments (11) 
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Comments (11)
Amy Goldschlager (5:25 PM on Tue May 12, 2009)
I feel a certain sour amusement that today, findingDulcinea posted a story about a teacher who asked Colorado high school students to invent a terrorist plot as part of their homework: http://is.gd/zcAC I commented that you should leave stuff like that to the professionals, like thriller writers. Thriller writers, comic book writers: close enough.
Jay (7:31 PM on Tue May 12, 2009)
Always nice to see the people tasked with working for a government agency prove they are among the stupidest people on the planet.
Delmo Walters Jr. (4:32 PM on Tue May 12, 2009)
Another Bush era mess that Obama has to clean up.
Anonymous (2:21 PM on Tue May 12, 2009)
proof that you don't HAVE to be an idiot to work for the government... but it helps!
-samax
http://www.ghettoManga.com
Christopher Back (8:18 PM on Fri May 15, 2009)
Stupid question: what does TSA stand for?
Glenn Hauman (12:55 PM on Sat May 16, 2009)
Transportation Security Administration, part of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
Christopher Back (8:17 PM on Sat May 16, 2009)
Thanks for the info. After a while these government agencies start blurring together.
FBI, EPA, DEA, NSA, CIA, ATF, DOJ, TSA, DSH, and etc.
mike weber (9:08 PM on Sat May 16, 2009)
DHS was basically created for two reasons - Security Theatre (If you look like you're busily doing something good, people won't notice that you're not - or that you're even doing evil - and yes, Dick Cheney, i am looking at you and your sock pupprt), and union busting (the unions in all of the agencies subsumed under DHS were eliminated or castrated).
Your public servants at work.
Vinnie Bartilucci (9:12 AM on Sun May 17, 2009)
Were the dissolutions of those unions followed by a drop in pay or reduction of benefits, or any of the other things usually assumed to be a goal of removing a union?
mike weber (2:42 AM on Mon May 18, 2009)
I don't have the figures - but i do know that Reagan's dissoution of the air traffic controllers' union resulted in a lot of not-very-experienced new-hires going live on the boards a lot sooner than the were ready.
And i do know that, even when federal employees have unions, the carda are stacked against them.
However, whether or not there is any (so far) discernble/quantifiable damage to anyone is irrelevant to the question of motive - unrestricted warrantless wire-taps with no supervision may not yet have been proven to be harmful ... but they should be opposed, anyway.
When someone who is demonstrably hostile to the existence and/or goals of an organisation manipulates the laws to eliminate that organisation, one should step carefully and keep one's eyes open.
"When the fox preaches, look to your geese."
Anonymous (12:16 PM on Sat May 16, 2009)
On the bright side, I now know that Mark has a twitter account.
- David