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Doing the Unthinkable: TSA Accused of Detaining Comic Script Due to Script

unthinkable-boom-186Boom! Studios is alleging that its comics writer Mark Sable was detaining by the TSA at Los Angeles International Airport because of his script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable.

Unthinkable is a series about a group of smart guys who come up with 9/11-type “unthinkable” terrorist scenarios. Here is Sable’s account:

“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.”

This is a matter of concern when writers are detained based on the content of their writing. If true, it is also moronic. What is the likelihood that a terrorist would draw comic portrayals of his planned attack in carrying out his mission.

What makes me think that the next edition from Boom! will be a story of how knuckle-dragging TSA agents are turned into mindless zombies by a soul-crushing and freedom-crushing league of evil bureaucrats. The edition will show a courageous genius writer named Sable who overcomes the drones of doom with acts of unparalleled bravery and proper diction. Take that TSA evil doers.

For the full story, click here.

24 thoughts on “Doing the Unthinkable: TSA Accused of Detaining Comic Script Due to Script”

  1. I don’t fly unless I have to, too big a pain in the butt with the morons in TSA.

    As for the 9-11 comments, I have just have to point out steel buildings do NOT “free fall” to the ground from a plane hit, let alone a “fire” like building #7.

    Even if you cut the building in half and dropped it from 20 feet up on the other half, its NOT going to “free fall” all the way to the ground…not possible.

    And building #7 there is NO WAY a building would go down like that from a fire…NONE!

  2. There were some TSA search policy changes in the news today. The case George mentions above where TSA staff detained an individual who would not explain the source of $4700 cash he was carrying, has resulted in some changes.

    From the article in the Washington Times:

    The new rules, issued in September and October, tell officers “screening may not be conducted to detect evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security” and that large amounts of cash don’t qualify as suspicious for purposes of safety.

    “We had been hearing of so many reports of TSA screeners engaging in wide-ranging fishing expeditions for illegal activities,” said Ben Wizner, a staff lawyer for the ACLU, pointing to reports of officers scanning pill-bottle labels to see whether the passenger was the person who obtained the prescription as one example.

    He said screeners get a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches, strictly to keep weapons and explosives off planes, not to help police enforce other laws.

    …

    “Are you from this planet?” one officer told him, while another accused him of acting like a child for asking what part of the law forced him to answer their questions about the money.

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