The Transportation Security Administration: bravely protecting our skies from bottled water, nail files, and now, comic books.
Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic 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 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 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’m not sure what these guys were thinking, but imagine if they got hold of a novel by Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn. Their heads would likely explode. (If the TSA is reading this, that’s not a bomb threat. It’s a metaphor.)
In my personal experience, I’ve seen TSA personnel bully old ladies, sleep on the job, and fail to screen the luggage of a group of people because those people didn’t speak English, among other things. Everyone who’s been through an airport security line has a story or two. Like the old joke goes, it’s the rotten 90 percent who spoil it for the other 10. But I don’t speak up anymore. I’m usually flying with my daughter these days, and I don’t really care to find out just how vindictive or petty these people can get now.
However, I’ll compliment Mark Sable for staying calm. Because if someone in a uniform told me I had to justify the content of one of my scripts or manuscripts before I could get on the plane, it would have gone something like this:
TSA screener: Sir, can you tell me why there are mentions of terrorism in these pages?
Me: It also mentions vampires. Do you need me to tell you that vampires aren’t real?
TSA screener: Sir, can you just answer the question?
Me: Can you roll that up and cram it in sideways?
Actually, I flatter myself with the above exchange. I think it would probably just be more likely a string of obscenities, followed by something about the First Amendment. Either way, it’s the sort of conversation that can only end with the distinct crackle of a Taser.
Giving a baggage handler a badge doesn’t make him Jack Bauer. TSA doesn’t seem to do much except generate bad jokes and lawsuits.
But hey, we’re all shuffling barefoot through the airport, so that’s something. Right?
