"Kyle Baker's "Special Forces" limited series (Image Comics), based on the true tale of a man with autism who was accepted into the Army. His whole squad, as it turns out, are more special-needs than special-training, and the work is horrifying and mind-blowingly clever. Baker is an amazingly deft hand with a brush -- a bit like the legendary "Mad"man Jack Davis -- and has a keen ear for dialogue and plotting. His previous stuff was hilarious and cartoony, and the same style is being used to create an adreneline-crazed view of combat that is subversively skewed in tone. The primary character, in fact, is the very vision of a camouflage-clad pin-up girl who's bulging right out of her scanty BDUs. No one seems to notice this except the reader, and Baker is making a needling comment on the relationship between sex and violence and the way we absorb both greedily.

Much of the book is simply horrific, and then we discover that Baker is often just recreating images and attitudes posted online by real soldiers. Ouch." - Burl Burlingame , Honolulu Star Bulletin

SPECIAL FORCES "Kyle Baker's graphic novel SPECIAL FORCES (Image, paper, $16.99) reads at first like a nearly straightforward military fantasy, drawn with a peculiar hybrid of hyper­realistic precision and nutty exaggeration. Eventually, though, Baker bares his fangs: the book is the harshest, most serrated satire of the Iraq war yet published. These forces are "special" as in "Mama says I'm special" — the unstop­pable American soldier Zone is severely autistic, which is why he's so good at following orders. And the story's plot, it gradually becomes clear, proceeds from the premise that every lie the Bush administration told about the war was true. So terrorists declare, "We hate your freedom"; felons forced into military service become brave tactical geniuses who wouldn't dream of hurting children; and Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are not only real but concealed in an oil refinery, where Americans would never think to look because of course the war wasn't about oil."DOUGLAS WOLK, THE NEW YORK TIMES

SPECIAL FORCES

Comic Books & Graphic Novels

CLICK HERE FOR A SNEAK PREVIEW OF SPECIAL FORCES 4: THE FINAL CHAPTER Coming soon from Image comics.

READ THE FIRST ISSUE OF SPECIAL FORCES FOR FREE!

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"Gripping, smart and relentlessly bleak this is a fantastic book from a creator at the top of his game." Alasdair Stuart, FIREFOX NEWS

"a welcome parody while steeped in reality in the style of Jack Davis and Frank Miller by way of EC Comics." DEAN HASPIEL

"Baker combines absurdity, wit, violence, and social standing into a comic experience unlike anything you'll read this year." Robert Murray, Silver Bullet

"ISB BEST OF THE WEEK" Invincible Super Blog

"Sold out as of 20 minutes ago. I think I miscalculated how much interest there would be for this very fine comic book." Atlantis Comics Online

"Special Forces is the grittiest, most emotional and meaningful war comic I’ve ever read." Geekanerd

"Special Forces was a book I was originally going to wait for the trade on, but now I can't wait to see what happens next." Kevin Church

"Of special note, Kyle Baker’s Special Forces #1 is the first book to get Picked by two of our tastemakers, so be sure to check that one out!" PopCultureShock

"An irresistible premise can carry a first issue, and this is a VERY GOOD starting point." Joe McCulloch