The internationally acclaimed activist follows up her satirical work of graphic medicine with this collection of humorous comics essays about how historical and societal shifts have altered ― and perhaps destroyed ― "romantic love."

The deceptively simple through-line for Swedish media personality and activist Liv Strömquist’s The Reddest Rose is the question: Why does Leonardo DiCaprio date an endless string of 20-something models? Her answer ― in the form of this collection of well-researched, humorous comics essays ― tracks how philosophers and artists, from the Ancient Greeks to Beyoncé, conceptualized romantic love.

Strömquist’s signature characters, drawn in a flat, blocky style, ask each other questions and offer sharp commentary as they guide readers throughout history and the change in societies' values, from showing love/loving to getting love/being loved. (Poet Hilda "H.D." Doolittle ― who was so love-stricken by a man taking off his glasses that she believed they viewed dolphins together in another dimension ― lends the book its title.)

Lord Byron, Socrates, Byung-Chul Han, Ezra Pound, Slavoj Žižek, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Ariadne, and many others have cameos. For the first time in English, in The Reddest Rose, Strömquist wonders: in a rationalist, consumerist world, can romantic love survive?

Author/Artist: Liv Strömquist
Translator: Melissa Bowers
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Page Count: 184pp
Size: 7 x 9.75
Notes: paperback, b/w
Date of Publication: January 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1683964599