Mark Sable, writer of Boom! Studios “Unthinkable” comic about a writer who goes to work for a think tank to predict terrorist scenarios post 9/11 became a “person of interest” recently while traveling to New York for a signing. Sable wrote of his experiences:
“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 script mentions, 9/11, terrorist plots, and is about a writer who goes to work for a think tank that dreams up “unthinkable” terrorist scenarios for the government to protect against in a post-9/11 world. When his colleagues are being killed off in similar manner to the scenarios they dreamed up, the writer becomes a suspect. Fiction having no sense of irony, Sable, the writer of the comic, becomes a suspect too.
I don’t think you can get better PR for a comic like this, but this incredible, and (excuse the pun) completely unthinkable situation has to raise the question: how did the TSA know to stop Mark? Did security scan his bag while he was going through the metal detector and read the script? I don’t know, but this is a wild story about an incredibly interesting comic.
Source: Comic creator stopped by TSA for carrying script about writer under suspicion by TSA [via Boing Boing].
