Tom of Finland: The Comic Collection

by Tom of Finland, Dian Hanson

The comic collection is the only compilation of Tom of Finland's popular panel stories. Each of five 192-page volumes features eight or more complete stories, including all twenty-seven episodes of Kake, Tom's infamous ultimate leatherman. The stories are arranged chronologically in books sized to fit perfectly in one hand, with the whole set appropriately housed in a black leather display box. For boys who like boys who like art, this attractive package is not to be missed.

Genres: Art, LGBT, Comics

960 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2005

About the author

Touko Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, is often said to be the most famous Finnish artist in the world. His highly stylized homoerotic drawings had a profound influence on late twentieth century gay culture, as well as fashion and pop culture in general. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade.

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. Despite having created the self-assured and muscular archetype of the homosexual in his imagery, his most important messages were tolerance and that sex is something to be celebrated.

Tom of Finland's artwork is part of permanent collections of leading cultural institutions that include The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki), The Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Reviews

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pocket size of these books really do the illustrations a disservice, hence 4 stars instead of 5. Tom's artwork remains sublime.

[Martyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I laboured under the misapprehension that this set comprised of all of Tom of Finland's comics, whereas it only consists of 'the best'. I was really looking forward to reading the non-Kake comics which I had never read before, but they all proved to be something of a disappointment, all much of a muchness with nothing particularly fresh to add to the scenarios in the Kake comics, in spite of some of them being set in a more exotic location. It palls after a while and it's made me rather disillusioned with Tom of Finland. His range seems to be too limited. He doesn't have much inspiration and becomes too repetitive. He's too quick to get everyone having as much sex as possible and doesn't have the wisdom to tantalisingly tease the readers by deliciously extending the foreplay. Foreplay is where the inventiveness and variety can be created visually. Once you get to the intercourse the options become much more limited and one drawing becomes very much the same as another.
I feel that the Kake comics were better presented in their stand-alone volume, not just because of their larger size, but something to do with the page layout too. In these little volumes they didn't feel like they were presented to their best advantage. For Tom of Finland completionists they will of course want to get this set of little volumes, but for the general reader I would say just stick to the Complete Kake Comics. The additional comics found in this collection are just more variations on a theme. One of the pieces is all in Finnish without an English translation. One involves a woman throughout. There are three comics about Jack (basically Kake in a loin cloth), two entitled Beach Boys (Kake at the seaside), one about Ringo (a blond who has sex with a Kake-type figure) and six episodes about Mike (where each episode consists of a two page comic strip of more Kake-type sexual escapades. This set is generally very expensive and it's just not worth the money.

[Gerald Sessions · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 volumes starting in 1946 ending in 1986. The inside of the box has two pieces of artwork etched in gold on black.
Volume one includes an introduction, which is very well done and also has a listing to the photos that are scattered through the five volumes.
Each volume contains a content page, and at the end of each volume is a list of contents for all five volumes .
One thing of interest are several of the stories include females, and there are female characters scattered through a lot of the stories