Over the course of four decades he produced some 3500 illustrations, mostly featuring men with exaggerated primary and secondary sex traits, with tight or partially removed clothing. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. His highly stylized homoerotic drawings had a profound influence on late twentieth century gay culture, as well as fashion and pop culture in general. Touko Laaksonen ( – 7 November 1991), best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, is often said to be the most famous Finnish artist in the world. Tom of Finland – The Complete Kake Comics collects all these stories in one volume. Return with Kake to the days when men were men, sex was carefree, and everyone wore a big thick mustache. Tom lived out many of his most personal fantasies through Kake, and Kake’s international fans made him the template for what came to be known as the gay clone look of the 1970s.īetween 19, Tom published 26 episodes of Kake adventures, most as 20 page booklets. Then in 1968 Tom settled on Kake, a dark-haired, mustached leatherman who often wore a tight white t-shirt bearing the motto “Fucker.” Kake lived up to this moniker, a sort of post-Stonewall, hyper-masculine Johnny Appleseed traveling the world on his motorcycle to spread the seeds of liberated, mutually satisfying, ecstatically explicit gay sex. He tried out a blond named Vicky-a common male name in Finland-followed by a Tarzan-inspired Jack. In 1965, Tom of Finland began flirting with the idea of an ongoing character for his panel stories, the ultimate Tom’s Man.