“My aim is not to create an ideal but to draw beautiful men who love each other and are proud of it” – Tom of Finland Within the comics, social and cultural issues of the time were addressed terrorism and airplane hijacking were tackled alongside the subject of sexual freedom between races. The characters engaged in intense and passionate lovemaking and would always leave smiling. During these 18 years of publication, Kake, pronounced “kah-kee” (a Finnish nickname roughly linked to the English word ‘Butch’) revelled in his sexual adventures. Between 19, 26 official Kake comics were created and these established Tom’s fame within the gay community. The viewer can run through the decades, following the development of his drawings from childhood through the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s through to the creation of his most famous character Kake.
“Tom … mastered his ability to tell stories only with visual depictions” says Durk Dehner, Founder/Director of the Tom of Finland Foundation. Seeing the works within frames rather than in a comic book gives exhibition visitors a more intimate view of the detailed and beautifully sketched men. Tom of Finland © 1976-2019 Tom of Finland Foundation Magazine creator Bob Mizer added “of Finland” without consulting Touko and through this Tom of Finland was born. During the 1950s Touko’s drawings appeared on the cover of Physique Pictorial: a gay magazine disguised as a sports magazine to combat the censorship in America. The arrival of his “dirty drawings” was initially for his personal interest and as gifts for friends. After Finland joined World War II, he became a second lieutenant, manning anti-aircraft guns in Helsinki and his imagination was fed through the diverse sexual experiences of city life and he began drawing uniformed soldiers in his work.
“I was determined that, in my drawings at least, gay men would be open and masculine, and the sex, no matter how heavy, would always be free and positive and every story would end happily”– Tom of Finlandīorn Touko Valio Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland in 1920, Tom of Finland first started creating comics as a young child and in the 1930s began recording his erotic fantasies on paper. The exhibition Let’s Go Camping with Tom of Finland at Cross Lane Projects celebrates the work and influence of the iconic queer artist and comics creator ahead of the 100th anniversary of his birth, as part of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.