By Keith Walsh
Comic book creator Danny Harrell drew on his admiration for female punk bands in the Riot Grrrl movement to create the visually stunning new comic ‘Rebel Grrrls’ for Keenspot. With elements of horror and fantasy, the series presents an engaging reading experience as it focuses on the mishaps of ‘Alien She Devils,’ a raucous all girl punk band making waves in the U.S. Deep South.

My complete interview with Danny Harrell is at Popular Culture Beat Dot Com. Here’s an excerpt:

Popular Culture Beat: In the first issue there’s already lots of portrayal of misogyny against the protagonists. What other themes can we expect in future issues?

Danny Harrell: The book is influenced heavily by the Riot Grrrl movement in punk. Riot Grrrl was born out of a music culture where females had been called ‘jacket holders,’ and weren’t exactly welcomed at the front of the stage. Even before the Riot Grrrl movement started, female members of punk bands experienced misogyny within punk culture. Ari Up from The Slits was stabbed twice in the same year, and both were ruled as misogynistic hate crimes. 

When the Riot Grrrl movement started, the bands wanted females within the punk scene to be able to express themselves like the boys were doing. They called out sexism within the punk scene and created the idea of “girls to the front” at their shows. They tackled sexism within the scene head on and with a ‘take no shit’ attitude. ‘Revolution girl style.’ And not just the bands themselves. The fans created and distributed zines, created art and whatever they could to get the message out. There were Riot Grrrl meet ups in different cities and people found out about them by being at shows, seeing flyers in music shops, etc. A total DIY movement. They had something to say and refused to not be heard.”

The book Girls To The Front by Sara Marcus is a fantastic look at the Riot Grrrl scene and the struggles that bands and fans went through. The documentary The Punk Singer is another great look into the Riot Rrrrl movement. 

All of that is a very long-winded way of saying that it would be impossible to write a story about an all-girl punk band without addressing the issue of misogyny within the music industry. As far as what’s to come, just stay tuned.”

Complete Rebel Grrrls Interview With Danny Harrell At Popular Culture Beat
Keenspot Comics
Danny Harrell On Instagram

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