Idiotland is a surrealistic comic book by Doug Allen

Doug Allen

Doug Allen is an American underground cartoonist, illustrator, and musician. Best known for his long-running comic strip Steven, Allen has over the years collaborated with long-time friend Gary Leib on music, animation, fine art, and comics, including the two-man Fantagraphics anthology...

 and Gary Leib

Gary Leib

Gary Leib is an American underground cartoonist, animator, and musician. Best known for the comic book Idiotland , Leib's work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Musician Magazine, The New York Observer, RAW, BLAB! and as weekly...

 published by Fantagraphics in 1993–1994. It is noticeably more surreal

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 and Dada-esque

Dada

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...

 that Allen's more-famous work, the Steven comic strip and its compilations.

Idiotland was low on plot and high on bizarre characters of unusual anatomy and memorable names, such as Margarita Schnapps and Lavender Sachet, a pair of mean-spirited, middle-aged shopaholic

Shopaholic

Shopaholic is a series of novels written by the UK author Sophie Kinsella, who also writes under her real name Madeleine Wickham. The books follow protagonist Becky Bloomwood through her adventures in shopping and life. As of September 2010, there are six books in the series. The entire series has...

s in anthropomorphic animal form, or Milkshake Gravy, a nosy, unattractive, cross-dressing mailman. It also includes the serialized, three-part story, "Morties," about a small community overtaken by parasitic, mind-controlling fish, called Morties, which bubble up from the brain and burst through the skull. After "Morties" concluded, a new serial began in issue #4, called "Lunch Money." Both stories starred the creators Allen and Leib portrayed as children.

Idiotland was nominated for a 1994

1994 in comics

-Year overall:* Huge changes in the marketplace force many retailers and small publishers out of business...

 Harvey Award

Harvey Award

The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...

for Best New Series. It ran for seven issues.