Edited by Dian Hanson, illustrations by Tom of Finland

In 1965, Tom of Finland began flirting with the idea of an ongoing character for his panel stories, the ultimate Tom's Man. He tried out a blond named Vicky, a common male name in Finland, followed by a Tarzan-inspired Jack. 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. 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. Between 1968 and 1986, Tom published 26 episodes of Kake adventures, most as 20-page booklets. Tom of Finland: The Complete Kake Comics collects all of these stories in one 704 page volume.

Text in English, French, and German

9783836550512, hardcover