Taschen, does it again. This is a collection of Tom of Finland’s best loved comic book star, the unrelenting 'Kake’.  In the late 60’s Tom started to use a constant character, the dark-haired moustached ‘Kake’ in his instantly recognisable and eponymous T-Shirt bearing the legend ‘Fucker’ .

In the panel story comics this is what Kake did and did well, with an endless parade of liberated and happy hyper masculine men (and the odd women). He meets and fucks life-guards, lumberjacks, policemen, sailors, Leatherman and many more, back before the days of irony. Tom seemed to live his more explicit fantasised out through Kake, as did most of his readers and now the whole collection has been reprinted into one thick, fat book.  All 26 adventures are in the book and they take the reader back to an uninhibited time of carefree and fun sex.

If you’ve never seen any Kake comics then this is the perfect introduction, if you’re used to Tom of Finland’s pictures being stand alone one-offs then this will be a real treat.  It’s 709 pages(yes that’s the right number) cover the whole period of Kake’s very active life.
There are many that claim to be ‘gay classics’ but this deserves the title. Kake went on to become the template for many gay men looks and lives, and during the time when everyone wore a big moustache, he was the Alpha-Clone.

It’s as explicit and sexual frank as you'd expect a Tom book to be, but it’s also full of humour and fun.  I’ve got an original ‘Kake’ comic book, given to by an old gay friend when I was 18, I treasure it.  This flexi-cover book will undoubtedly become a treasure in the years to come.

The perfect book for a Tom fan and the perfect doorstop for anyone else, you can just use it to prop your bedroom door open, just in case Kake happens to walk past……

Out now from the publishers website £17.99
www.taschen.com

Or from every good gay bookshop