Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and seventh week of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
Here's Part 1 of this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed! Let's continue!
COMIC LEGEND:
Was Cheryl Blossom created in response to Cherry Poptart?
STATUS:
I'm Going With False
In case you are unfamiliar with the character, Cherry Poptart was a pornographic parody comic by Larry Welz that was drawn in the classic Dan DeCarlo "house style" for Archie Comics and was even decked out like a typical "Archie" comic book, except that the insides involved a lot of sex.
A while back, reader Michael D. wrote in to ask if Cheryl Blossom was introduced, then, as Archie's sort of response to Cherry. Their names are somewhat similar and when Frank Doyle and Dan DeCarlo introduced her in "Betty and Veronica" #320 (which came out the same year that Cherry debuted, 1982), Cheryl was pushing the envelope, sex-wise, a lot further than most Archie characters of the era...
But note how dismissive the park rangers are to Cheryl's attempt to be liberal with her body...
You could easily read it as a sort of dismissive parody of Cherry Poptart. Sort of like, "Yeah, yeah, we get it, you're sooooo edgy."
I checked with Archie, though, a while back and they checked with Victor Gorelick, the editor of that particular issue (Doyle and DeCarlo have both long passed) and he said that no, the character was not intended as a reference to Cherry Poptart.
Since Gorelick's really our best source on something like this, I tend to give his take credence, so I'm willing to go with a false on this one.
There ya go, Michael! Thanks to Archie Comics and Victor Gorelick for the information!
Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at CBR: Which character in "Love Actually" was intended to be an angel?
Check back tomorrow for part 3 of this week's legends!
And remember, if you have a legend that you're curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!