Wasteland (DC Comics)

"Wasteland" was an anthology-style horror comic book published by DC Comics in 1987-1989 and intended for adult readers. The series lasted 18 issues.

Each issue (with the exception of the book-length final issue) consisted of three unrelated stories written by John Ostrander or Del Close (or both, in collaboration) and a team of four artists (at any given time), one of whom would illustrate the three stories in each issue, the fourth supplying that month's cover (which had no direct connection to the interior contents). Members of the rotating crew of artists included Don Simpson, David Lloyd, William Messner-Loebs and Timothy Truman. One special issue included only the artwork of Joe Orlando.

For the most part, the series avoided the sort of gory shock associated with the twist ending horror comics typified by"Tales from the Crypt" and "The Twilight Zone" television series in favor of more unpredictable and ambivalent stories. The themes of alienation and psychological dread often occurred, mixed with grotesque black humor, absurdism and social and political commentary in the form of satire.

The stories did not take place in the DC Universe and no established DC characters appeared within its stories. The only exceptions came in a story entitled "Crossover" in which a few DC characters (and another of Ostrander's creations, GrimJack) appeared in a metafictional context and in the series' final issue, in which the entire run of the series (including "Crossover") was "rewound" to the beginning of the very first story.

Rather, the stories tended to take place in the real world. One story portrayed the death of H. P. Lovecraft. Another pastiched the autobiographical comics series "American Splendor" by Harvey Pekar, with Don Simpson imitating the drawing style of Robert Crumb. This story portrayed a thinly-guised version of Pekar in one of his acrimonious appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" in which Pekar had denounced General Electric. Typically, "Wasteland" both included political content in the story (GE, by that time, also indirectly owned DC Comics as well) and also turned it into a fable about self-loathing and anxiety.

Almost every issue of "Wasteland" portrayed, in exaggerated fashion, vignettes taken from the colorful life of "Wasteland" co-writer Del Close. In one of these stories, Close is voluntarily hypnotized by L. Ron Hubbard and is present when Hubbard comes up with the notion of turning Hubbard's Dianetics into the "religion" of Scientology. Close also openly discussed in his stories such other controversial topics as his own drug use and his involvement with witchcraft as a religion.

"Wasteland" was noted for the lively debates that took place within its letter columns.