LOVE IS…

Are you old enough to remember the ‘Love is…’ black-and-white comics that appeared in magazines and newspapers back in the 1970’s?

After having dated during high school, Debbie and I got back together while attending Roberts Wesleyan College. After her sophomore year, she returned home to work. I hitch-hiked nearly 10,000 miles over the next couple of years - mostly between Rochester, NY and Beaver Valley, PA. I've brushed several inches of snow off my shoulders in Buffalo, NY. I've also slept in wooded areas near Route 79, waiting for traffic to pick up again in the morning [traffic flow was different in the 1970's]! 

The two years that we were apart prompted us to write lots of letters! Debbie often included a ‘Love is…’ cartoon in with her correspondence! 

We're the couple on the right representing the class of '73 

during Homecoming of our sophomore year!

We kept the flames of our love alive and were married in August, 1973, after my graduation.  😊

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Have you ever heard the story behind these much-appreciated cartoons?

A New Zealand artist-cartoonist, Kim Casali, began to travel around the world when she was 19 years old.  Six years later, she settled in California where she met an Italian man named Roberto Casali.

She began drawing short scenes of them portrayed as a chubby naked girl and boy. Her efforts drew on her feelings at the time. 

 

First, she drew a little girl to represent her. Then she drew a little boy to represent Roberto. Her feelings for him became the basis for her drawing.

 

Roberto decided to produce the output of comics, and so “Love is…” was released on January 5, 1970.  In 1974, the boy calls the girl Kim. Even before that, in the comics [1971], the girl draws the letter R in the sand!

 

In a 1981 interview, Kim said: “If I had a choice, I would be an author of romantic love songs…But I don’t know how to write beautifully, so I had to choose another way to express my feelings.”  The comics became very popular!

 

After the birth of two sons, Roberto became the business manager of their corporation – ‘Minikim’.

 

Eventually even animals appear in the comics, too: a dog named Samson and a reference to Fido. In 2005, the couple has two cats, and in 2009, the girl is crying over a dead cat.

 

Sadly, in 1975, Roberto was diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Kim stopped working and turned the artistry over to Bill Espirit. This is when the comics became color and the characters began wearing clothes.

 

In 1976, at the age of 31, Roberto died and the comics showed only a little girl and a tombstone. Sixteen months after his death, Kim had a baby by using the frozen sperm of her husband.

 

Sadly, this love story finally ended when, at the age of 55, Kim also died of bone cancer.

[Information largely copied from:  https://pictolic.com/en/article/love-is-history-of-creation-of-cute-comics-about-love]