Editor Mike Gold, coming to DC from First, suggested that Ostrander and Close work together again in creating Wasteland.

[2] For the most part each issue featured a team of four artists, one of whom would illustrate each of the three stories, the fourth supplying that month's cover (which would bear no, or at most only a thematic, connection to the interior contents).

Later issues featured Bill Wray as a regular and guest artists like Timothy Truman, Joe Orlando and Ty Templeton.

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.

A text page in the first issue mentioned a desire to improve upon what the creators felt didn't work in DC's own House of Mystery, which had twice folded at the time.

[7] Typically, "American Squalor" both included political content in the story and also turned it into a fable about self-loathing and anxiety.