Comics writer Mark Sable was detained by security at Los Angeles International Airport

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.

Source: Ian Randal Strock



Unthinkable series released here

 

The Crab with the Golden Claws recovered.



A rare copy of the Tintin album Crabe aux pinces d'Or - The Crab with the Golden Claws - that was stolen from an auction house in May (see a few posts above) is returned. It was posted on Tuesday in the mailbox of the Ostend police office, as reported the city of Namur.

The thief could not be arrested, but his wife and accomplice were arrested on September 15. The two, who live in Ostend, and apparently have money problems, are also suspected of the theft of a Tintin album in Morlanwelz (Hainaut).

The album that was stolen in the auction house 'Félicien Rops' in Namur, is worth several thousands of dollars.

Source: Het Nieuwsblad - Belgium - October 27th, 2011

Jean Giraud dies at 73.

Paris, 12 March 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

French designer and comic strip artist Jean Giraud , also known as Mœbius and Gir, passed away on 10 March 2012 following a battle with cancer. He was 73.

Born in 1938, Giraud began to draw at the age of 12. He sold his first story to Marijac 3at the age of 15, and at the age of 16 began his training at the École des arts appliqués in Paris. At 18, he published his first works in publicity, fashion and decoration, and created his first comic strip (bande dessinée), Frank et Jérémie, published in 1956. He also began to work as a graphic artist for publications such as Fripounet et Marissette and Coeurs vaillants.

In 1974, Giraud co-founded Les Humanoïdes Associés , a publication house dedicated to the Francophone tradition of bande dessinée, before going on to found the magazine Hurlant, in 1975, and Editions Aedena in 1984. Over his career he created many comic stip series including Blueberry , l’Incal and l’Arzach . He also collaborated in the graphic conception of films, notably of Ridley Scott’s Alien.