“Love is…”: the true story and tragedy of a cute couple from the world’s most famous romantic comics

Artist Kim Grove arrived in Los Angeles from her native New Zealand in the mid-1960s – she was just 19 years old. This era remained in the memory of generations as the heyday of hippie ideals, but the girl was not interested in free love – she dreamed of meeting her one and only.

Kim met Italian engineer Roberto Casali at a ski resort. Their meeting was fleeting, and the beautiful brunette did not pay attention to the girl at first, but she fell in love, as they say, head over heels – and at first sight. To express her feelings, Kim began to draw funny comics: a girl and a boy found themselves in funny situations on a ski slope. The artist accompanied each image with a witty caption beginning with the words Love is… (Love is… ) – and carefully put it in place Roberto before breakfast.

Of course, the Italian was intrigued. Kim didn’t make much effort to remain anonymous, so he quickly found out who the author of the comics was. They have already left the station as a couple. Casali fell in love as much as Grove did.

It was his connections that helped Kim’s comics land on the back page of a popular California newspaper. The girl herself did not take this part of her work seriously, although she never stopped transferring on paper touching and funny situations from her life with her beloved – and the boy and the girl acquired more and more individual traits from their prototypes.

But Roberto was sure that the comics and their captions were brilliant, so he was proud to be responsible for the appearance of these drawings and wanted as many people as possible to see them. The publication in the Los Angeles Times helped, and how – Kim woke up famous! Comics began to be printed on T-shirts, mugs, posters…

In 1971, Kim and Roberto married and the artist took her husband’s name, beginning to sign her name as Kim Casali. She continued to document the development of relationships and family happiness in her works – first the girl from the comics appeared in a wedding dress, then the characters began to learn what parenthood was (the couple Casali had two sons). It seemed that their happiness would have no end.

But in 1975, Roberto Casali was diagnosed with cancer. Kim devoted herself to saving her husband: she made all the connections, agreed to test new drugs, operations – in a word, she tried to do everything to prolong his life. But everything was in vain: just one year after the diagnosis, Roberto died.

While the Casals were fighting for life, comic strips, at Kim’s request, were being drawn by his friend, the English artist Bill Asprey. After the death of her husband, the woman was unable to return to the profession that had made her famous. Everyone was sure that the image of the girl on the tombstone would be the last image of her paternity.

However, a year and a half after Robert’s death, Kim unexpectedly published a new comic: the photo showed a girl with a stroller and the caption read: “We are delighted to introduce you to Milo Casali.” His parents are Kim and Roberto (posthumously) Casali.”

The widow used her husband’s frozen genetic material and gave birth to the third baby he so dreamed of. This was one of the first such cases, and it became a real scandal: even the Vatican published a message in which it condemned the artist, calling his act unethical. But Kim didn’t care.

Kasali and his sons moved to Australia and devoted the rest of the years allotted to him by fate to horse breeding. She died in 1988, after her death the eldest son Stefano began to manage the affairs of the company that owns the rights to use the comic strip. And Bill Asprey continued to draw comics – and since 1978, at his suggestion, they became color.

It’s curious, but for a long time neither Esprit nor Kasali suspected that Love is… chewing gum was produced in Turkey, which made the comic incredibly popular in the territory of the former USSR . Turkish producers have not paid any royalties to anyone. The situation changed just 10 years ago: a Turkish confectionery factory was bought by a large international manufacturer, which correctly prepared the legal documentation. Now, every time you and I rejoice in a cute new insert, Kim’s heirs get their penny – and rightly so.