In the spring of 2006, many Americans were surprised to find the U.S. Army had recruited an 18-year-old boy with autism. As usual, cartoonist Kyle Baker quickly saw the humor in the situation. The Eisner award-winning cartoonist—who’s done everything from romantic comedies (You Are Here) and superheroes (Plastic Man) to historical epics (Nat Turner), crime (The Shadow) and family life (The Bakers)—used that story as the basis of a new satirical miniseries on the Iraq war called Special Forces. Starting this month from Image Comics, the six-issue series follows an autistic recruit and a batch of other misfits from basic training to the battlefield. “In the end, [the real-life autistic kid] didn’t have to go to war,” Baker said with a chuckle. “But in my story, he goes.”

In an interview with PWCW, Baker, father of a brand new baby girl, discusses America’s interest, or lack of interest, in the Iraq war, and the war comics of his idol, legendary EC Comics and Mad magazine editor Harvey Kurtzman.

PW Comics Week: So is the autistic kid the series’ main character?

Kyle Baker: It’s kind of a team of f***ups—y’know, kinda like Stripes? I’m a big fan of Catch-22, M*A*S*H, war comedies like that. I wanted to do that kind of thing. War stories are always where you introduce a bunch of guys and then you kill ’em off. I’ve been reading a lot of [the DC war comic] Sgt. Rock lately. It’s great.

PWCW: Why do you think there haven’t been a lot of stories about this war yet—either comedic or dramatic?

KB: Well, two reasons—there’s not a lot of news about it. And I hate to say it, but I think people don’t care or something. You look at page one of the newspaper, and it’s always Lindsay Lohan, y’know? It’s not the most important thing in the world to them. I remember the day after the [2004 Indian Ocean] tsunami, the big front-page news was “Brad and Jennifer Break Up.” [laughs]

PWCW: Are you worried about getting any flack over this, about putting the war in a humorous light?

KB: No, it’s a comic book. There’s a long history of war comic books, and this is part of that long history. There are certain subjects that lend themselves well to comic books—science fiction, superheroes—certain genres, mostly action stuff. I’m a big fan of Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales. I also liked how Kurtzman balanced comedy and doing war stuff—he would do MAD Magazine and do the war stuff at the same time, which is pretty much what I’m doing.

PWCW: So is this a straight-up comedy or are there serious dramatic elements as well?

KB: Uh, it’s gruesome. Did you see Nat Turner?

PWCW: Yeah.

KB: Okay. It’s like that. I’m blowing people up, chopping ’em up, killing them in gruesome ways and telling an interesting story—and I happen to think it’s funny. Most of this stuff is based on true things that I read in the newspaper. The fact that they’re recruiting autistic kids—and that’s the guy that didn’t get in!

PWCW: Does this comic reflect a lot of your opinions on the war?

KB: I think I’m more interested in what goes on in this particular war. The guys who are over there—they’re not dumb, they know why they’re there. They’re not looking for Osama bin Laden and weapons of mass destruction. [The military is] recruiting at the bottom of the barrel—it’s in the paper. Everybody I’ve known who’s joined the military has done it as a last resort. They’re either f***ups or they just like fighting. [laughs] They’re not really fighting for democracy and freedom, and they know it. They’re just there because they’ve got nothing else to do. Nobody on earth at this point believes it’s about anything except oil. You can’t say it’s about democracy or freedom or Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden or the World Trade Center—it’s bullshit.

PWCW: What’s the main arc of the story?

KB: It’s a story about the people. At the end of the day, all of these stories are always about individuals and what happens to them as they go through it. Whether it’s A Farewell to Arms or Brighton Beach Memoirs or whatever. This is about a couple of particular characters who pretty much end up in the military ’cause they got nowhere else to go. But they do end up trying to do the right thing. That’s the thing about these guys, you do have to be brave and have character and fight.

Most of these guys are better off in the army. Most of these guys are fuckups, and they go in the army and it straightens them out—that’s kind of the idea behind this thing. People who are somewhat shifty to begin with go over there and develop character. [laughs]. That’s kind of always the [case with] war stories. At the end of the day, if you don’t have character, you blow up. [laughs] Even if you’re a good person, you might blow up, you just hope you blow up for a good reason.

PWCW: It’s been almost a year now since you joined Image Comics—how’s that relationship working out?

KB: I think it’s been good so far. I was falling behind on deadlines because of the baby. I didn’t want to broadcast that [my wife] Liz was pregnant because I didn’t want to jinx it. So I couldn’t really tell anybody why I was fucking up [laughs]. But now I’m back to work. Yeah, so far I like them. I feel good about this being the first book that is really designed to be an Image book. The other two books were them picking up things that I’d started somewhere else—The Bakers and Nat Turner. When I think of Image, I think of action books. I know most of the guys who started it, and they were all great superhero action artists. So I wanted to do something that was all about the fighting and chicks! This is my best shot at an Image book. It’s just boobies and guns.

PWCW: What else are you working on these days? What have you got planned after Special Forces?

KB: I’m continuing with The Bakers. I’m finishing up a graphic novel now at the same time I’m doing Special Forces. I have a Bakers book in the can already. The new one is called Babies & Kittens and it comes out very soon, I should be finishing it any day. Special Forces will go on for about six months—and if people like it, I’ll send them somewhere else.

PWCW: So some of the Special Forces characters might survive?

KB: Oh, yes. It’s the army, there’s always rotating talent.