We live in the realm of images. With a smartphone in hand, we talk, shop, date, fall asleep, and most importantly, spy on ourselves. But while taking care of our appearance has become one of the most important parts of our lives—after all, who doesn't want to look good in a photo?—, beauty itself has come under threat as the capitalist market has hijacked it and turned it into a consumer product. In her first full-colour comic book, the Swedish comics superstar and insightful glossator of the modern world explores when we became paparazzi of our own bodies. What does love have to do with appearance? What do Marilyn Monroe's latest snaps and Kim Kardashian's selfies have in common? Which empress had the thinnest waist? And what can we learn from Snow White's stepmother?


Nowadays, *Liv Strömquist (1978)** is a recognised name in Sweden mainly due to podcasts and her worldwide successful books. However, she started out as the author of small satirical comics, which were created in a shared apartment where she and her friend did not have a table—soft carpet on the floor being the cause of her "bumpy" drawing style. During the years 2002 and 2005, she published her own fanzine Rikedomen, from which Riots Not Diets emerged—a sort of comic book mini-manifesto against the obsession with appearance and weight loss. It was later included, along with other small pieces, as part of the album Hundra percent fett (One Hundred Percent Fat), which captures perhaps the most radical period of the author's work The Fruit of Knowledge and The Reddest Rose.