Cherry #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCherry #3 (January 1986, Last Gasp) is the issue where the series permanently shed the 'Poptart' surname from its title — a direct response to Kellogg's trademark pressure over its Pop-Tarts brand — and simultaneously introduced 'Cherry Popstar' as the character's formal surname within the stories, a name that has remained her canonical identifier ever since. That renaming makes this issue the de facto pivot point for the entire run: everything published before it belongs to one legal and publishing identity, everything after to another. Beyond the nomenclature shift, the issue embodies the creative ambition Welz was developing in the mid-1980s, folding pop-cultural satire — including a Vietnam-set rock-journalism assignment for Cherry — into the series' adult humor framework, demonstrating that the book was reaching for more than a single joke. As part of a series that Wikipedia and multiple collector sources describe as among the largest-selling of the underground comics and one of the titles credited with reviving that genre, issue #3 is the structural cornerstone of the run.
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Larry Welz — a veteran of the San Francisco underground comix scene since the late 1960s — had launched the series in 1982 under Last Gasp as Cherry Poptart, but by issue #3 in 1986, pressure from Kellogg's over its Pop-Tarts trademark forced (or at minimum strongly encouraged) a title change, a circumstance Welz has confirmed directly. Welz served as writer, artist, and editor on the issue, continuing his solo creative practice; the 44-page, black-and-white format published under Last Gasp's 'Yentzer & Gonif' brand imprint was consistent with the series' production approach throughout its first thirteen issues with that publisher.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First issue published under the shortened title 'Cherry' — the series had been called 'Cherry Poptart' for issues #1–#2 (1982); the change was prompted by Kellogg's trademark concerns over its Pop-Tarts brand, as confirmed by Welz.
- First issue to use the surname 'Cherry Popstar' for the protagonist within story content; prior issues referred to her as 'Cherry Poptart.'
- Written, drawn, and edited entirely by Larry Welz, an early contributor to the San Francisco underground comix movement since the late 1960s/early 1970s.
- Published January 1986 by Last Gasp (San Francisco); 44 pages, black-and-white, Adults Only designation, under the publisher's 'Yentzer & Gonif' brand imprint.
- Features a Vietnam-set story in which Cherry is on assignment for a rock magazine — an example of the series' recurring pop-culture satire framework.
- Material from this issue was reprinted in The Cherry Collection #1 (Last Gasp, March 1990) and in the Norwegian anthology Kaninpocket #2 (Atlantic Forlag, 1990), indicating international distribution.
- A 2022 facsimile edition was published by Cherry Comics, with variant covers by artist Rose Besch, demonstrating the issue's continued recognition within the series.
- Amazing Heroes reviewer R.A. Jones named Cherry one of the ten best titles of 1986, specifically praising its satirical lampooning of 'saccharine' Archie-style comics — the same aesthetic tension that defines the Cherry Popstar name change.
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