I've been eyeing all the music figures in the ReAction line for years, but this is the first one I've purchased and opened (somewhere I have the Salt n Pepa set packed away untouched). Green Day is a formative band from my high school years. I personally never owned an album. However, my siblings did and three of us shared a bedroom (so I heard them constantly). As much as I like them, I'm even more thankful for their legacy and all the bands they directly inspired. The pop-punk era of the 90s and early oughts is my favorite genre of music, and I credit that sound with Green Day. Their 1991 album, Kerplunk! featured a punky rebellious girl on the cover widely referred to as Kerplunk Girl. And while not a completely proven correlation, it is widely assumed that she is intended to be Laurie L., a fictional girl whose essay appears in the liner notes of the album detailing how she killed her parents to follow Green Day on tour. It's somehow not as morbid as it sounds. Let's check out the notorious Kerplunk Girl below!
The fictional character Laurie L. was created by Lookout Records owner Larry Livermore. There is a story about her in the liner notes of the Kerplunk album dealing with themes of isolation, feminism, and rebellion... all very punk. Well, maybe not the feminism part at the time, but Green Day was actively trying to make the punk genre less of a boys' club.
Larry's description of the Laurie L. character was given to Chris Appelgren and Pat Hynes (Lookout Records artists) who created the artwork (with style inspired by the 'zine illustrations of Janelle Hessig).
(FYI Larry, Chris, and Patrick also made up the band The Potatomen, one of my favorites. They were regular features in the mixtapes my friends and I were always making/swapping).
The image of the body on the back got the album banned in many locations.
Time for a Comparison Pic!
Cheers!
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