Scott King talks about the terrible ordeal the Transportation Security Administration put him through on a recent trip, where among other things, they asked if he was a terrorist because he had copies of DMZ with him:
The second problem was that I had several graphic novels with me. I had planned to read them on the plane. I had “DMZ” volumes 1, 2 & 3, “The Nightly News,” and “Artemis Fowl.” The guard flipped through “DMZ” saw a ravaged New York City and them immediately called for two other security guards to join him in the room. I was then questioned for over an hour about the comics and why I had them. I was point blank asked if I was a terrorist or if I ever had desires to harm other. The whole ordeal was completely ridiculous. I can understand them being cautious but going ballistic because of the graphic novels I had with me is taking it too far.
I told them that I was the Executive Editor of Th3rd World Studios, an independent comic book company, and that as a result I always try to read as many other comics/graphic novels so that I know what’s out there. I explained that DMZ had gotten a lot of positive reviews and so I decided it was time I finally read it. But they didn’t seem to care. All they saw was comics with “terrorism” and felt that it was suspicious.
Hmmm … I didn’t see any limits on reading material on the TSA’s list of permitted and prohibited items list, although Transformers, for some weird reason, are listed as ok to carry on a plane (not that I think they shouldn’t be; it’s just odd they’d call them out).
November 13th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Lose a little bit of faith in humanity when I read stuff like this… DMZ is an amazing series.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Absolutely ridiculous. I would definitely retain an attorney if this happened to me.
-D
November 13th, 2007 at 9:09 am
The price of protecting freedom is to lose it?
November 13th, 2007 at 9:20 am
read the whole post and I suggest anyone commenting as well do the same.
scott, I am guessing you dont fly very often which might explain a lot of what happened to you.
As we all know, because of the state of the world and the few people out there that want to cause harm to total strangers, the world is a different place.
Every flight I go on,[ At least 4 a month] in the u.s.a… the shoes come off. each and every time for the past 2 years since that french guy with the shoe bomb.
giving the security people attitude or anyone attitude that works at the airline and you get pulled over and talked to or brought away from the general population and questioned…and i can understand this, because thousands of people have to go through security at each airport a day.Imagine you are in line and 40 people in front of you start giving attitude to the security people? lol…you would never make any flight. I treat the airline experience the same as when i am in court or dealing with police. These are people that can detain me if i act a certain way.
second…putting your bag outside a bathroom stall, well, there are hooks on the back of the doors for hanging…but if there wasnt, I use the toilet seat paper covers or paper and put it on the floor then place the bag on it. leaving your bags outside the stall…you must be a trustworthy soul.again, I think this is something someone that doesnt travel much does.
It sucks, but I have been put through and pulled aside a few times in my travels. I suck it up because of the very few cases where something is actually found and in the world we live in, things happen.I have learned to live with it, get to the airport early and expect a delay.
Sorry you had a hard time and asking you about the books, well, doesnt that seem like a natural thing to do? i am sure you were brought into a room where that persons only job is to question things he hasnt seen or doesnt understand .
It’s easy to get pissed off and let it escalate when in this situation, and I will not defend these people if they treated you rough, but a lot of what happened to you was probably triggered by your actions and unknowingly, you set off a few alarms in these people.
It is a good lesson learned and cool that you posted it, but nothing i read was the least bit out of the ordinary for a regular traveler except where you say they roughed you up while searching.
I would call the airline and request that the tape where you were searched was reviewed and get a lawyer and have them get a copy of the tape as well since it is all video taped. i then would proceed from there if it looks like an actual case to the lawyer.
again scott, it sucks and if you have a case, go for it. Just pointing my point of view and not trying to discount what you went through or how you feel. I hate all this airline B.S. as well. I just learned to go with the flow and be open-minded and try to understand what they must deal with as well on a daily basis.
jimmy
November 13th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I think making a big deal about DMZ is silly as well, but I also don’t think they would have even brought it up had you not put yourself on their radar with your erratic smart-ass behavior.
The leaving your bag unattended thing is a deal-breaker for me. Anyone who isn’t aware of that as general basic knowledge has no business flying, anyway.
Dealing with airport security is a pain, no question. But being burned to death by a fiery explosion at 30,000 feet? Now that’s painful.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:57 am
So I guess it is this guy´s fault all along for commiting a thought-crime. How DARES he possess a work of fiction that features a war-ravaged New York City? Support our troops! Mission accomplished! God bless amerikkah!
Mr. Palmiotti, if that´s really you, you seriously dissapoint me.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Mr. Palmiotti,
Having read the whole post before posting my ownn abd having reread it at your advice I reïtterate my question:
The price of protecting freedom is to lose it?
However bad the state of the world may be, if this happened to me at Brussels airport, near where I live, and a security person would pick me out solely on the facts stated in the article, I would file a complaint for wanton use of power and sue. It is, really, as simple as that.
Wouter
November 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am
So if you’d had a copy of the Authority; Relentless trade on you, would you expect to be pulled over? Five or six World Capitals are ruined in the first 10 pages as I recall.
Zoom! Crash! Argh! COMICS AREN’T JUST FOR PATRIOTS ANY MORE!
Don’t Islamic Fundamentalists object to representational art? Why would an Al-Qaeda operative be a danger if he’s carrying a comic? Is he going to treat the edges with anti-coagulant and administer lethal papercuts?
There’s an awful lot of ignorance and paranoia passing by under the guise of appropriate vigilance.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:30 am
I believe Transformers are called out because of toys like Generation 1 Megatron or Browning, who can appear like realistic handguns. I believe at one time there were prohibited, but now they are not.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I truly hope Scott does indeed hire a lawyer. What happened to him was inexcusable. Having flown numerous times since 9/11, I can definitely tell you that once you get on the TSA’s bad side, regardless of what you may or may not have done, they’ll screw you over every single time.
So, Scott, if you ever do fly again, expect your luggage to be searched every single time and to always be pulled aside. Your name is now on a “list”. So give yourself another 30 minutes now.
It’s a shame this had to happen to you. Good luck!
November 13th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I think you need to go back and read the entire story and not just the “clip” featured here.
then re-read what i wrote. manuel…this is a security issue and not a thought crime. read the entire post by Scott. and dallas, read again where i state if they roughed scott up he should sue.
rmc:I think the comic is just a small part of a bigger picture presented in the whole experience. its a collective situation and never was scott pulled in for having a comicbook. that single fact is not the whole picture of what happened to him that day.
There are rules and security issues and things have to be done in this world to protect people. if you made a fuss in brussels about something the security people asked everyone else to do for security reasons, like taking off your shoes for the checkpoint, believe me , in brussels, they would talk to you or even pull you away from the group to talk to you. depending on the level of agitation, Iwould guess they would treat you in what way they seem fit…or at least Iwould hope so. this can be argued to death, trust me. what I stated are that there are rules the airlines have about security and they try to enforce them, and so far here in the states, we have not had a repeat of 9-11. I live in nyc, and because of that horrible time and loss of lives i deal with security issues because i have seen what a lapse in security can turn into.
I am glad things are eased up in brussels and security isnt that bad, and thank god and hope nothing ever happens over there.
see? this argument can go on forever.all I have are my personal experiences to take into this conversation.
simply put: scott, if they mistreated you ,go after them.
JIMMY
November 13th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Head to Scott’s blog for the full story: he was patted down and questioned for 20 minutes. Before the cut him loose, he was asked to fill out a questionnaire, to which he responded with smart ass answers.
A little while later and despite the constant warnings not to leave your bags unattended, he did just that when he entered the washroom. That’s when the guard pulled him aside for over an hour of questioning.
I’m not saying he deserved. I’m simply saying you can’t act like a smart ass in the airport and expect to get away with it.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Damn! My post is filled with typos.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I traveled to Australia & New Zealand this past summer and took DMZ vol 1 & 2 and Y the Last Man vol 1 & 2. Had no problems at all, but I am polite and don’t blame the security for the fact that they are there to make travel safer. Blame the terrorists for the problems, security personnel are damned if they do damned if they don’t. They are also intitled to having a bad day once and a while (wouldn’t you if you dealt with travelers all day long?)
November 13th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I agree w/Jimmy, if you want to act like an idiot in a U.S. airport these days, prepare to face the consequences…
November 13th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I agree w/Jimmy, if you want to act like an idiot in a U.S. airport these days, prepare to face the consequences…
November 13th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Hmm… a really dangerous comic, next time I only gonna carry with me National Geographic magazines, just hope they aren’t dangerous in a plane.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Damn, I really wanted to catch up on BLACK SUMMER on my way to Puerto Rico.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Mmmkay. TMZ is bad. They’re always gossipin’ about celebrities. Leave Britney alone, mmkay?
November 13th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Maybe the baggage handler was just a fan of those books.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
snikt…never used the word idiot.
also, on a side note…love me those dmz trades
November 13th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I wonder what would have happened if he had a DVD of ENscape From New York. Did he show them then end of DMZ 3 where the hero captures many of terrorists?
November 13th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
One more thought. The doors to the cockpit are now reinforced so terrorists can’t use the same trick twice. This makes much of the security unnecessary. As a result the guards jest pull people over to pretend that they’re actually doing something.
Yes, representational art is banned under Islamic law as part of the second commandment.
Sorry for the typos.
November 13th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Security Theater is the term for it. All this nonsense is just to make us feel better.
Nothing currently in place would stop a real terrorist that wants to kill a bunch of people.
We are giving up all or freedoms and not gaining an ounce of real safety or security.
November 13th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Jimmy, *I* used the word idiot, never meant to infer that you did.
That still doesn’t change the fact that Scott King WAS an idiot in an airport. Sounds like he just didn’t think the rules applied to him and thought he could act however he wanted w/o any repercussions. I bet he won’t be making the same mistake twice…
November 13th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Ah! At least it was not a copy of WATCHMEN, that was ravaged! I guess any Alan Moore reader now is a terrorist as well! Ops, gotta be careful, as you know, Echelon is watching! haha lets feed Echelon with Ultimate Universe!
November 13th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Sorry to quibble, Pseudonym, but we don’t have commandments in Islam. There are 5 central tenets called pillars, and the second one is “perform the requisite prayers.” Representational art–or art of any kind for that matter–is not mentioned anywhere in any of the five pillars.
I was with Mr. King until I got to the part about leaving the bag outside the bathroom and being a smart-ass on the evaluation form. Every airport I’ve ever been to post-9/11 has a “do not leave baggage unattended” announcement over the loudspeaker every 5 minutes–if I saw an anonymous bag lying around outside a bathroom for any length of time, I’d probably alert the airport staff myself. That’s a no-brainer. As for being a smart-ass–I’ll never understand why people think being rude is edgy and daring. If he hadn’t done that, the TSA would never have even seen the comics.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Marcimus: “I traveled to Australia & New Zealand this past summer and took DMZ vol 1 & 2 and Y the Last Man vol 1 & 2.”
Yes! Come to New Zealand! We love you crazy free-thinking commies and your leftist reading material! ^_^
My thoughts on this, though: I do understand why they pulled Scott aside, but surely it would be possible to question him with, y’know, courtesy. Innocent until proven communist, and all that… I get that there’s this paranoid airport security stuffs now, but you *don’t need to be a dick about it.*
November 13th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
So besides DMZ, Black Summer and Watchmen is there any other “Prohibited” funny book on american airports? Let´s build a list because, jeez, I don´t want to be arrested or tasered for posession of subversive materiel.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
HAH, tha’s funny. The cockpits are now reinforced, so there is no threat of terrorism? Shoe bombs aren’t for higjacking planes, they’re for blowing them up. Explain to me how a reinforced cockpit is goin to protect the pilots when the plane is in a million pieces and the cockpit is plummeting to earth.
Yes, he was hassled, but he also broke a lot of rules (rules the anyone who is not deaf and dumb should be aware of in this “post 9/11 world”…and yes, I hate that I had to use that phrase) as well as general common sense.
He didn’t take off his shoes…ok, that’s not a huge deal, but it’s common knowledge. If this was lte 2001 or early 2002 and he hadn’t flow, that would be one thing, but he hasn’t heard of that rule in the 7 years since? Does he live under a rock?.
Then, he was a smartass about the questionaire. Gee, what a bunch of assholes they were about this prick who can’t take it seriously… Why didn’t he complete the trifecta and make a joke about having a gun or a bomb, then use the defense of “gee, I didn’t see the sign that said not to joke about having a gun or bomb”.
Give me a friggin break.
I’d also like to bring out an old chestnut that my father (and a million other people I’ve heard) used to say: Ignorance is not a defense.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Oh, and of course, the rule about not leaving your baggage unattended is not anywhere near a new thing. At all. My mother has never in her LIFE flown on a plane, and the first time I flew to NYC to visit my brother, SHE told me not to leave my baggage unattended.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I said “they can’t use the same trick twice” i.e hijacking a plane, not “there’s no threat of terrorism”. So yes, they could blow up a plane, but if they want to kill random people, they could set a bomb off anywhere, not just an airplane. So having that high security in an airport but not nearly as high in the fast food court in the mall, doesn’t make any sense.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:56 am
listen to Jimmy everyone,
he is good people.
as someone who who only recently went interstate [ironically, to meet Mr. Palmiotti, among others] and found that a good attitude can do wonders when talking to airport security.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Really? You honestly believe that every food court at every mall should have the same security measures as an airport?
Right…
November 16th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I had missed the point about the unattended baggage, so fair dos’ to the security people… it was the detail about the comic books which got my goat, I afraid.
I still find it objectionable and flatly idiotic that somebody couldn’t have taken 30 seconds to do a brief internet search, if they really suspect the books of being pro-terrorist propoganda but I take Mr Palmiotti’s point; it’s a minor greivence and there may well be reasons why that wasn’t a viable course of action.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:26 am
This is hilarious. I used to tell customers at the comic shop I work in that DMZ issues had tracking devices embedded ito the covers so the government knew where you were.