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.