The Story Behind Green Day’s ‘Where’s Waldo’-Like Album Cover for ‘Dookie’

Packed with Green Day classics from “When I Come Around,” “Basket Cast” and “Longview,” the band’s 1994 breakout album, Dookie, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, had one of the most illustrative covers, a near Where’s Waldo-type storyboard of colorful scenes, where every time one looks they see something different. 

Drawn by punk artist Richie Bucher, who knew the band from their one-time drummer John Kiffmeyer, the cover is set on Telegraph Avenue in the band’s hometown of Berkeley, California. 

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At first, Bucher wasn’t given any information about the album, just the title: Dookie. Thinking about the band’s 1991 album, Kerplunk! Bucher started envisioning fighter jets and drew from there. Once the band approved the initial draft, he started filling it in with more chaotic scenes, including all the denizens, creatures, and other images populating the street.

“All I had to work with was that it was Green Day and the album was called ‘Dookie,’” said Bucher. “I used to listen to the Kerplunk! album all the time, and the first two songs especially just sounded to me like a fighter plane swooping down. That was the way in for me, the anchor for building the rest of the drawing. They didn’t give me a lot of guidance, which was nice, and I just sketched out the basic design and brought it to them. Once they approved the sketch, I went back and fleshed it out with the crazy stuff in my head.”

Pop Culture … and Poop

A keen eye will spot some famous icons within pop culture, including Elvis Presley, some cavemen, a Chia pet, robots, and other creatures.

“The robed character that looks like the Mona Lisa is the woman on the cover of the first Black Sabbath album,” revealed singer Billie Joe Armstrong. “AC/DC guitarist Angus Young is in there somewhere, too.”

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Within Bucher’s illustration, there are also some images of poop.

Monkeys and dogs can be seen flinging turds off the rooftops at the crowd gathered below.

Gilbert Shelton

Rather than Where’s Waldo, Bucher admitted to being inspired by artist Gilbert Shelton’s work with The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, which the artist grew up reading, along with the cover of the Grateful Dead’s 1978 album, Shakedown Street. 

He also looked to artist—and Punk Magazine co-founder—John Holmstrom, who illustrated The Ramones’ albums, Road to Ruin and Rocket to Russia. 

Liquid Dookie

And speaking off the later “portions” of the illustration… 

Originally, the title of the album was Liquid Dookie, which referenced what once happened to the band’s bowels after eating spoiled food on tour. 

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After some careful consideration, the band thought the title was gross and went with Dookie instead and colored up the cover art instead of leaving listeners’ imaginations to any images of Liquid Dookie.

The Power of ‘Dookie’

In 1995, Dookie earned Green Day a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and sold 20 million copies worldwide.

“Back then, I just wanted to write songs I could be proud of,” said Armstrong around the 20th anniversary of Dookie in 2014, “and be able to play in five years.”

Photo: Pamela Littky / Warner Records