Love: A Discovery in Comics

by Margreet de Heer

How to describe love? Is love passion, stability, friendship, or all of the above? In this comics exploration, de Heer investigates different questions about love. Is there really such a thing as finding The One? What happens in the brain when we fall in love? How can we keep long-term love? What to do about a broken heart? Margreet herself seems to have found her ideal partner in Yiri, but after so many years of marriage, how about that Seven Year Itch? This book deals with many aspects of love, sex, and relationships in a lighthearted, playful, and thought-provoking manner.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics

128 pages, Hardcover

First published February 9, 2017

About the author

Margreet de Heer lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with her husband Yiri T. Kohl. A long time ago, she studied Theology at the University of Amsterdam, but through divine intervention she ended up being a comic artist. She worked at the famous comic store Lambiek from 2000 until 2005, and wrote a book about Dutch comics together with Kees Kousemaker.

Since 2005 she is a full-time comic book artist producing a wide range of work, from children's comics in magazines to cartoons at business conferences. In 2007 she started making philosophical comic "reports" for newspaper Trouw. This resulted in a book edition in 2010 which was a bestseller and is published in the U.S. by NBM with the title 'Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics'.

She continued the series with a book about Religion (2011), Science (2012), World Domination (2015) and Love (2017). Thus far, her books have appeared in The Netherlands, the US, Brazil and South Korea.

In 2017, Margreet was appointed Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands, a title she uses to promote Dutch comics, especially in schools. She holds this title until Fall of 2020.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

As in the previous books in this series, this one take a big topic and makes it relatable, combining factual groundwork with a sense of humor and a personal point of view.

[Sabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was nice. The illustrations were easy yet understandable and fun.

Just don't take it as a kids' book, nope that it's not.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Love: A Discovery in Comics' by Margreet de Heer is a series of comics exploring love in it's different types and phases.

Love is a big subject, but it gets taken on here. There are many types of love, and those are defined. The book mainly focuses on eros, or romantic, love. The story follows a couple as they meet and are happy forever, until they aren't.

I had fun reading this one. The topic is covered in a fun way and the illustrations are good. I don't know how memorable it all is a couple days after reading it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from NBM Publishing, Papercutz, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Margreet de Heer's books in much the same way I used to like to read magazines sometimes. Interesting, thought-provoking (but not too thought-provoking) information in palatable bite-sized chunks along with cute pictures and a dash of humor. It's like taking a college elective with a fun teacher but without homework or grades.

[Arwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was hilarious- it touched on not just love, but also the history of it. That was pretty interesting, and the comics were witty. I honestly really enjoyed it, and I really liked the style of the book. It takes a complicated topic it breaks it down into an engaging story and journey. Overall, this was a fun read.

[حسناء · Rating 3 out of 5]

❤️

[Anya Zhang · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I won this book in a @IPGBook Goodreads Giveaway, so thank you guys for this amazing book! This book was an extremely fun book to read, and it was actually very deep and thorough when exploring different aspects and parts of love. With each turn of the page, you are met with a page filled with colorful images. There is comfort found in this book, and while there is cold, hard truth as well, it made the book seem real to the reader. I loved the layout of the book and how the colors and images are so vibrant that they literally jumped out from the page. I feel like this book about love is like shaping the world. Within this book, love is a mountain which brings you up to touch the sky. Love is a meadow which the sun shines down on its smiling wildflowers. Love is a desert where we wonder what could've been. And love is a cave where people often find themselves trapped, but are scared to crave the sunlight outside. This book took you on a journey both high and low, to places where you are shown both the beauty and ugliness of love. My favorite part of the book though, might actually have been the Disclaimer page, and the two people in their snowsuits. I would've liked the book better if the sections of the book were better defined instead of just flowing right into each other. Overall, this was a great read!

[Coen De · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Liefde in beeld" is een wat ongewone strip. Het is niet echt een verhaal, maar een soort documentaire over allerlei aspecten van liefde, hoewel er ook wel verhalen in voorkomen.
Margreet behandelt bijvoorbeeld de geschiedenis van het huwelijk, de ongemakkelijke relatie tussen liefde, seks en religie, ze citeert uit de Kama Sutra en het Hooglied, en ze bespreekt de regels van het daten. (conclusie: er zijn geen regels voor daten)
Maar tussendoor bespreekt ze ook haar eigen liefdesleven, en eigenlijk vind ik dat deel het mooist.
Dat verhaal over haar eigen leven is deels fictief, (dat zegt ze tenminste in de eindnoten) maar ik heb de indruk dat veel ervan overeen komt met de realiteit. Ook omdat het overeen komt met dingen die Margreet me eerder verteld heeft.
Margreet vertelt heel openhartig over de domme fouten die ze gemaakt heeft in haar leven. Dapper vind ik dat. Maar ook heel herkenbaar. Want van dat soort fouten heb ik er ook heel veel gemaakt.
Dapper omdat zo open en bloot in een stripboek te zetten, maar ook mooi dat het uiteindelijk toch goed komt.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfectly reasonable all-ages-friendly primer about love, which does touch on tantric sex and open marriages, but also discusses the science of it, the feeling of it, the problems if you look too hard for it, and some ideas about keeping hold of it. I liked the chatty style, right down to the "it is what it is" conclusion, and apart from a couple of pages where the reading order was too random the visuals are good, too. It fits the mould of these light-of-touch non-fiction guides in graphic novel form, and is warm-hearted with it.

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this, but am uncertain if it was an unfinished version? There were some pages with blank speech bubbles here and there, but I couldn't figure out whether that was on purpose, or because something was left out. It was a tad disjointed, but not too much so, so could go either way.

It was a fun and quick read, but not one that made a big impression on me. It didn't really bring anything new to the table, but then I hadn't expected it to either.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A blend of the personal and sociological/historical aspects of love and what it means. A nice overview, where you have a personal guide/example, but also the greater context of biology, history, norms, etc.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as well as de Heer's other books. But then again, there's so much more subjectivity in the area of love. Still...a fun read.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as bad as her Religion book. But pretty dumb.

[wildct2003 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, not as enjoyable as science or philosophy

[Maïlys · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, the style was really cool and I liked the facts we get about love, as well as the empirical notes.
Such a cool book !

[Onder · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5* Hardstikke saai en raar boek...

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this graphic novel so much, but it was funny sometimes, but I think that it is just impossible to make love simple, even if it could/should be. Maybe as a comic strip was funnier, I do not know.....

Questa graphic novel non mi é piaciuta poi tanto, anche se a volte mi ha fatto ridere, ma fare dell'amore una cosa semplice non é possibile secondo me, anche se teoricamente potrebbe esserlo. Magari come striscia giornaliera sarebbe stata piú divertente....non lo so......

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgally for review purposes.


This book was so cute and happy!!! I really felt like I got a feel for the relationship of the couple in the book, and I absolutely loved when ever anything was mentioned of them. It was super informative with a ton of things I'd never known or heard of, but gives you insight on love and does so in a fun way.


Super enjoyable 😍

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I decided to take on this book. It's half encyclopedia half personal experience on love in comic art. It's enjoyable and informative, but it failed to fully capture my interest. The authors nonetheless deserve my congratulations for doing something different.