Comic Artist Detained For Script Containing 9/11 Type Scenarios

Comics writer Mark Sable was detained by security at Los Angeles International Airport because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries, Unthinkable. Unthinkable 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 wrote about his experience saying, "...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." It's too bad that the TSA can't protect us from summer blockbuster movies and not just graphic novels.

Comments

Re:Proof please.

[0xdeadbeef]

Any proof that he was detained and that this happened? Otherwise I'm tempted to believe that it is a stunt to advertise his comic.

I'm tempted to believe that you believe that the President wasn't actually born in Hawaii.

In fairness...

[tjstork]

If somebody was smuggling a bunch of documents onto airplane describing how to blow it up, wouldn't you, as an employee whose job it is to understand how people might blow up airplanes, want to have a look?

Re:Proof please.

[hexmem]

In Europe we got Universal Health Care due to the principals of solidarity towards your fellow human beings.

Oh ya, that's TOTALLY why you have Universal Health Care. (roll's eyes)

Here's a news flash for you buddy. UHC has never worked anywhere in the world as well as the US's private health care. Not that the US's health care system is perfect by any means, but it's way better then any socialist health care that's out there.

The Brits like cameras? So what? Do you have the slightest idea about the kind of security they get from those?

Yes I do know the kind of security you get from CCTV. Absolutely none! Cameras might help catch the person who killed/raped/robbed you AFTER THE FACT, but what good is that? The damage is done. Who needs a camera for security when you can just carry a 9mm? Then the only person who gets hurt is the IDIOT who tried to commit a crime against you.

Re:Proof please.

[Beardo the Bearded]

No, it's not. It's just copypasta, bland and generic; the verbal equivalent of iceberg lettuce on white bread.

The original poster commented that "Things like Guantanamo Bay, the Iraq War, this TSA bullshit and countless others simply do not happen in other countries."

That's clearly a false statement, but in calling it either false or stupid or even "incomprehensibly wrong" does not do anything to promote your point of view. We could use the UK CCTV network as a counterpoint to the TSA bullshit; the Iraq War can be held against countless examples, of which the first I can think of is China's occupation of Tibet and desire for Taiwan; Torture is used throughout human history to get information out of people, famously the WWII-era Japanese.

Now, when you're comparing the US - the great and shining beacon of freedom and justice - to the UK, China, and Japan before 1945, then you've got some serious issues with your quality control department.

But simply saying "you're so wrong it makes my head hurt" is just lazy copypasta hinging on religious rhetoric.