This book that came about by accident. A collaboration between U.S. Army veteran Brent Dulak and myself, it was originally going to be just a segment of True War Comics until we got to talking—really talking—about his experience in Afghanistan and how the ghosts of his experience in Iraq followed him there.
It evolved into a graphic novella and then into a beefier full length story that would become one of the launch titles for for the Naval Institute Press’s Dead Reckoning Graphic Novels imprint.
Brought to vivid life by comics artist Per Darwin Berg and ruthlessly edited by then-War is Boring editor David Axe, Machete Squad is a look at the sometimes surreal absurdity of war from the perspective of a multi-tour combat medic thrust into a leadership position he wasn’t ready for. It’s a trippy, bloody, harrowing and darkly funny look at America’s longest war.
Publisher’s Weekly named it one of the top indy titles of Fall 2018, it was on Military Time’s Fall reading list and it was a finalist for best graphic novel in the 2018 INDIES awards from Forward Reviews
Buy it at your local book store or comic shop or online at:
Praise for Machete Squad:
“Again and again, the story knowingly undermines what would be tense, dramatic scenes in a Hollywood movie by dragging them down to unglamorous reality … this episodic tale of military life has a gritty honesty, like a guy at a dive bar with a story to get off his chest.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“Ruthless and eye-opening… Machete Squad cuts like a jagged instrument, providing an uncomfortable but essential look at a national wound improperly treated for nearly two decades. It is the grunt’s-eye view of a war most have already forgotten, but one that will define the next generation of military and civilian leaders.” — Col. Seth W.B. Folsom USMC, author of Where Youth and Laughter Go: With “The Cutting Edge” in Afghanistan
“This is a timely and tragic story that reflects the complicated world in which we live.” — Comics Bulletin
“A U.S. Army medic cuts to the bone in a graphic memoir that takes full advantage of the form. This book . . . offers a vivid, terrifying, and often beautiful illumination of one man's cathartic experience in Afghanistan . . . Many of the panels have few or no words, letting the art convey the depth of the experience. … Readers will have a visceral response to the experiences shared by this searing memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This work is open and honest about soldiers’ experiences and is often darkly humorous in a way that veterans of any era will find familiar.” — Military Heritage
“The austere settings are vast in scale yet feel intimate, as though you are seeing the world through Dulak’s eyes. Berg’s drawings expertly use color (warm and cool) and depth (shadows and angles).” — Military Times
“Candidly describing the violence of war, laced with dark humor, and all but impossible to put down, Machete Squad is highly recommended.” — The Midwest Book Review
