Liv Strömquist

Strömquist's comics have been described as a form of "popular education" or "gender studies in the medium of comics."

Strömquist was born in Lund and grew up in Ravlunda in the Österlen region of south Sweden. Today she lives in Malmö. Already as a five-year old she made her own comics, but stopped, until she took up drawing comics at the age of 23. Her flatmate made her interested in comic fanzines then. With Rikedomen, she published her first own fanzine. Her breakthrough as a comic artist followed with her first album Hundra procent fett ("One hundred percent fat"), which was published in 2005. She regularly publishes in the comic magazine Galago in various magazines and newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Arbete, Bang, Aftonbladet and Ordfront Magasin. She designed the cover for the 2013 album Shaking the Habitual by the band The Knife. She also made a comic strip for the band's website, which depicted income inequality in a satirical manner. Strömquist studied sociology at Lund University and earned a degree in political science at Malmö University. Strömquist has been awarded an honorary doctorate twice. In 2016 by Malmö University and in 2021 by UCLouvain. Since 2005, she has been working for the youth radio station Sveriges Radio P3. She was involved in the satirical programs Tankesmedjan and Pang Prego. Together with the author Caroline Ringskog Ferrada-Noli, she runs the podcast En varg söker sin pod for the newspaper Expressen. In the SVT program Liv och Horace i Europa, which was broadcast in spring 2016, she travelled through Europe together with Horace Engdahl and discussed the lives of various authors.

• Illustration — Strömquist being interviewed by Ann Lind Andersen at Bogforum 2025 Her comics are mostly about sociopolitical issues from a feminist and left-wing perspective. They are satirical essays about power and injustices. A central and recurring theme in Strömquist's oeuvre is a critical examination of the nuclear family, heterosexual coupledom, and romantic love. According to scholars Kristy Beers Fägersten, Anna Nordenstam, and Margareta Wallin Wictorin, Strömquist uses satire to expose and critique the societal promotion of the nuclear family as an ideal, highlighting how its conservative values disproportionately burden women. In works like Einsteins fru (2008) and its 2018 republication, she interrogates the historical construction of this ideal and its contemporary consequences, such as the unequal distribution of unpaid domestic labor and childcare. Her satire often targets authority figures and institutions that champion the traditional family. Scholars point to her depictions of politicians, television personalities like Dr. Phil, and religious leaders such as the Pope, whose pronouncements on family values are rendered absurd or hypocritical through ironic commentary and caricature.

• Hundra procent fett. Ordfront/Galago 2005. • Drift. Kolik förlag 2007 (together with Jan Bielecki). • Einsteins fru. Ordfront/Galago 2008. • Prins Charles Känsla. Ordfront/Galago 2010. • Ja till Liv!. Ordfront/Galago 2011. • Månadens moderat Kalender 2013. Ordfront Förlag 2013. • Kunskapens frukt. Ordfront/Galago 2014. (Eng. trans. Fruit of Knowledge, Fantagraphics Books 2018.) • Kära Liv och Caroline. Natur & Kultur 2015 (together with Caroline Ringskog Ferrada-Noli). • Uppgång & Fall. Ordfront/Galago 2016. • Den rödaste rosen slår ut. Ordfront/Galago 2019. (Eng. trans. The reddest rose, Fantagraphics Books 2022.) • Inne i spegelsalen. Norstedts 2021. • Liv Strömquists astrologi. Norstedts 2022. • Pythian pratar. Norstedts 2024.

What the record establishes about Liv Strömquist. The patriarchy / Liv Strömquist; translated by Melissa Bowers. Kunskapens frukt: Liv Strömquist. Recorded as comics artist, illustrator and radio personality.