The author of the comic strips is New Zealander Kim Grove, who began drawing the comics in the 1960s for her boyfriend, Italian computer engineer Roberto Alfredo Vincenzo Casali. The two met during a course at a ski school. “I started making little drawings to express what I felt,” she said. Kim and Roberto married in New Zealand in 1971.
Her full name was Marilyn Judith Grove. She left New Zealand in 1960 to travel the world. Her first job was as a waitress in a tea house in London. Kim moved to Los Angeles, United States, in 1967. At the beginning in the United States, Kim worked at Max Factor, sticking labels on packages. When she got a job as a receptionist at a design company, she began selling “Love is…” drawings for US$ 1 each.
The first cartoons started as illustrations for the notes that Kim left for her boyfriend. In the drawings, the cartoonist depicted herself with big eyes and hair and Roberto with a “certain Latin air,” as she later stated. At the time, the couple lived in the United States and, to Kim’s surprise, the boyfriend kept all the drawings and showed them to an American newspaper, which liked the illustrations and, in 1972, published them.
In 1970, the couple managed to sell the rights to the characters to the “Los Angeles Times” newspaper, which began publishing their stories. The cartoonist signed only as “Kim”. The first strip was published on January 5, 1970. From then on, they were syndically published daily in about 60 countries and became a worldwide success.
The strips were translated into several languages, including Portuguese, and the “Love is…” sticker album was released in Brazil in 1978 by Editora Abril. The series became a cultural phenomenon in the country, winning the hearts of Brazilians and generating great demand for the stickers. The stickers were sold in packs of 3 units.
On July 2, 1972, O GLOBO began publishing the cartoonist’s strips. During the week, readers could send suggestions of what love meant to them and, through a curation process, the phrases appeared in the newspaper along with the drawings.
Kim and Roberto were a passionate couple. In a 1974 strip, the little boy calls the little girl “Kim”. In another from 1971, the little girl is drawing a name in the beach sand that starts with the letter R.
In March 1976, after the publication of the first strips, Roberto Casali died of cancer at 31 years old. The couple had two children: Stefano and Dario. Sixteen months after Roberto’s death, Milo was born, the result of artificial insemination that Kim underwent with her husband’s frozen sperm.
Starting in 1975, the strip was continued by other artists. Initially, American cartoonist Dale Hale, known for being Charles M. Schulz’s second assistant on his ‘Peanuts’ comics, took over the work, but his heart wasn’t really in it and he quit after a year. From that moment on, Bill Asprey, British cartoonist, poet, and composer, took over and became the official artist of the series.
In 1981, the cartoonist came to Brazil to fulfill her dream of seeing Rio and seeking inspiration for new works. In an interview with O Globo newspaper on July 4, she spoke about the controversy surrounding the birth of her last child and the creative process of her work: “I was surprised to see that my personal feelings about love were the same as everyone else’s.” Kim also revealed her favorite strip: “love is never asking for more than you are prepared to give.”
Kim’s love story with the comics came to an end with her death in a town in the English countryside. Kim died on June 15, 1997, at 55 years old, also a victim of cancer. Her eldest son, Stefano, took over the production of the strips. British Bill Asprey, based in England, has been drawing the little couple’s strips since 1975.
Many used the romantic phrases to win someone over or simply dream of love. The cartoons, a success in the 70s and 80s, went around the world and remain in the memory of lovers to this day.
Fonte: brasil247.com