Wasteland (DC Comics)

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Wasteland was an anthology horror comic book published by DC Comics in 1987-1989. The series, which lasted 18 issues, was primarily written by John Ostrander and Del Close. Each issue (with the exception of the final issue) consisted of three unrelated stories. For the most part, the stories avoided the sort of gory shock associated with the classic EC Comics-style horror comics, with stories instead focusing on psychological dread often mixed with gallows humor.

Wasteland was not part of DC continuity 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 metafictionally 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.

Most of the issues included biographical vignettes from the life of Del Close, including, notably, a story in which he claimed to be present when L. Ron Hubbard came up with the notion of turning Dianetics into the "religion" of Scientology. Close also openly discussed in his stories such controversial topics as his own drug use and his involvement with witchcraft as a religion.