Tom of Finland by Dian Hanson
July 25th 2011 23:17
Tom of Finland
by Dian Hanson
Dian Hanson's introduction gets directly into the core of matters as far as describing how a young Finnish lad named Touko Laaksonen became the notorious Tom of Finland via the even more notorious Physique Magazine.
She rightly references the 1991 documentary 'Daddy and the Muscle Academy' as she traces his growing desire for shiny, high leather boots, just like the German soldiers wore while his homeland was enduring the second world war. Although criticized for glorifying Nazis Laaksonen was apolitical when it came down to the bare bones of the matter, and only interested in that black leather look. Luckily in the 1950's a post-war Marlon Brando exploded onto the screen, and who knows what other eruptions occurred due to that? Well, certainly a few creative spurts from Laaksonen, who shifted his drawing skills from one astonishing look to another; from the storm trooper to the bikie leather man. If he had been born later I imagine we may have seen some pretty interesting Chewbaccas and Siths given that George Lucas created parts of Star Wars in the far icy North.
Illustrator George Quaintance passed away in 1960. Up until then he had been the number one illustrator at Physique Magazine. Fortune shone on Laaksonen as Quaintance passed, because Physique needed to replace their most popular artist and Laaksonen took that position. Looking at the work of Laaksonen and understanding that he mostly drew to stimulate himself sexually it is fascinating to imagine the process happening. What fine lines are touching the delicate buttons and getting the juices flowing? Essentially his work, the work of Tom of Finland, is erotica and pornography. It depicts sex between men in a variety of ways. Penetration is involved so it is considered X Rated, but you can get the book easy enough on line.
The men are all very masculine and sport well shaped bodies. The proportions are somewhat gargantuan as far as genitalia are concerned and the sexuality is very aggressive. It is not for everyone, but those who like it tend to like it very much indeed.
Understandably Tom of Finland is very popular among men who aspire and achieve this look, and the aesthetic of the work has clearly been reflected within the broader community over the years to the extent where Laaksonen's work appears on everything from t-shirts to tailored dress coats. His influence carries all the way to the bathroom where men all over the world probably use his illustrations to groom their own look to perfection.
This book from Taschen is aimed at those generally same-sex-attracted men, as well as the ones who haven't quite come all the way out into the light as it were, and have issues with a book like this sitting in their study. This type of dilemma, the I don't want my book to out me, or offend anyone dilemma, is dealt with by employing the Reversible Painic! Jacket. Yes the glossy paper cover is reversible, so you can switch, just like a super hero, from the rather raunchy Tom of Finland gold inlay title over the grey tone muscle-toned-couple enjoying clamping together like a clam illustrated cover, to a pea-green copy of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (volume 1) to keep your graphic novel reading on the down low.
Quite a nice touch really as it provides richer context of the era this material arose. Laaksonen, after all, would have been imprisoned had they discovered his same-sex-attraction back in the day, and he knew it. The work in the book is basically a series of short graphic novels that show different situations where guys get it on with eachother.
The range of stereotypes is not broad really, we have cops, bikers, truckies, business men and lots of sailors. Very beautiful, very sexy and pretty absurd; probably atypical male sexual fantasy where everyone has a great time at the drp of a hat and nobody goes home unhappy (because they're still enjoying themselves).
Even though there are scenes depicting aggressive male rape, it all looks ridiculously silly because of the over all style and simplicity of the action in each story, so I could be convinced it's no more toxic than a sexy 'Carry On...' movie. It is all about the sex, and the sex is drawn clean and concise.
Media: Hardcover Book, 272 pages
Language: English
Publisher: Taschen (Mar. 1st, 2011)
ISBN-10: 3836524864
ISBN-13: 9783836524865
Dimensions: 6.19 x 8.83 x 1.15 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.95 lbs
by Dian Hanson
Dian Hanson's introduction gets directly into the core of matters as far as describing how a young Finnish lad named Touko Laaksonen became the notorious Tom of Finland via the even more notorious Physique Magazine.
She rightly references the 1991 documentary 'Daddy and the Muscle Academy' as she traces his growing desire for shiny, high leather boots, just like the German soldiers wore while his homeland was enduring the second world war. Although criticized for glorifying Nazis Laaksonen was apolitical when it came down to the bare bones of the matter, and only interested in that black leather look. Luckily in the 1950's a post-war Marlon Brando exploded onto the screen, and who knows what other eruptions occurred due to that? Well, certainly a few creative spurts from Laaksonen, who shifted his drawing skills from one astonishing look to another; from the storm trooper to the bikie leather man. If he had been born later I imagine we may have seen some pretty interesting Chewbaccas and Siths given that George Lucas created parts of Star Wars in the far icy North.
Illustrator George Quaintance passed away in 1960. Up until then he had been the number one illustrator at Physique Magazine. Fortune shone on Laaksonen as Quaintance passed, because Physique needed to replace their most popular artist and Laaksonen took that position. Looking at the work of Laaksonen and understanding that he mostly drew to stimulate himself sexually it is fascinating to imagine the process happening. What fine lines are touching the delicate buttons and getting the juices flowing? Essentially his work, the work of Tom of Finland, is erotica and pornography. It depicts sex between men in a variety of ways. Penetration is involved so it is considered X Rated, but you can get the book easy enough on line.
The men are all very masculine and sport well shaped bodies. The proportions are somewhat gargantuan as far as genitalia are concerned and the sexuality is very aggressive. It is not for everyone, but those who like it tend to like it very much indeed.
Understandably Tom of Finland is very popular among men who aspire and achieve this look, and the aesthetic of the work has clearly been reflected within the broader community over the years to the extent where Laaksonen's work appears on everything from t-shirts to tailored dress coats. His influence carries all the way to the bathroom where men all over the world probably use his illustrations to groom their own look to perfection.
This book from Taschen is aimed at those generally same-sex-attracted men, as well as the ones who haven't quite come all the way out into the light as it were, and have issues with a book like this sitting in their study. This type of dilemma, the I don't want my book to out me, or offend anyone dilemma, is dealt with by employing the Reversible Painic! Jacket. Yes the glossy paper cover is reversible, so you can switch, just like a super hero, from the rather raunchy Tom of Finland gold inlay title over the grey tone muscle-toned-couple enjoying clamping together like a clam illustrated cover, to a pea-green copy of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (volume 1) to keep your graphic novel reading on the down low.
Quite a nice touch really as it provides richer context of the era this material arose. Laaksonen, after all, would have been imprisoned had they discovered his same-sex-attraction back in the day, and he knew it. The work in the book is basically a series of short graphic novels that show different situations where guys get it on with eachother.
The range of stereotypes is not broad really, we have cops, bikers, truckies, business men and lots of sailors. Very beautiful, very sexy and pretty absurd; probably atypical male sexual fantasy where everyone has a great time at the drp of a hat and nobody goes home unhappy (because they're still enjoying themselves).
Even though there are scenes depicting aggressive male rape, it all looks ridiculously silly because of the over all style and simplicity of the action in each story, so I could be convinced it's no more toxic than a sexy 'Carry On...' movie. It is all about the sex, and the sex is drawn clean and concise.
Media: Hardcover Book, 272 pages
Language: English
Publisher: Taschen (Mar. 1st, 2011)
ISBN-10: 3836524864
ISBN-13: 9783836524865
Dimensions: 6.19 x 8.83 x 1.15 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.95 lbs
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