Kake (comics)

A page from Kake: The Cock D'or (1971). A typical Kake comic is composed of a sequence of several full-page panels that feature little to no dialogue.

Kake is a highly sexualized, highly idealized character distinguished by his hypermasculine physical characteristics, chiefly his developed muscles and exceptionally large penis. In most stories Kake is portrayed as a mustachioed leatherman, wearing clothing that is typically associated with the aesthetics of biker culture: a leather jacket, leather breeches, knee-high leather riding boots, and a leather peaked cap. The character occasionally also appears in other commonly fetishized uniforms, such as those of a policeman or a mechanic.[2]

The defining traits of Kake's character are his friendly and easygoing personality, and his promiscuity. The character's affable disposition intentionally contrasts typical portrayals of leathermen in heterosexual culture as menacing or dangerous, while his frequent sexual encounters reflect the attitudes of the sexual liberation movement that emerged in the 1960s.[1][2] Writer F. Valentine Hooven III notes that when the series focuses on subjects such as BDSM or rape fetishism, any sadistic acts performed by Kake are rendered as "innocent fun," and that the characters Kake performs these acts on are "welcome to do the same to him."[1]

A typical issue of Kake focuses on the character as he encounters and has sex with a similarly muscular and well-endowed man or group of men. These men are often archetypal characters that embody traditional masculine roles, such as police officers, sailors, lumberjacks, businessmen, or cowboys; the setting, such as a public restroom or a park, also plays a role in the content of the story. Stories are typically composed of approximately twenty full-page panels, and are told mostly without dialogue. When dialogue is included, such as an occasional exclamatory line or as incidental writing (signs, graffiti, etc.), it is written in English.[3]

Issue titles and release years are sourced from The Complete Kake Comics.[19]

Laaksonen in 1959

Laaksonen's illustrations of leathermen, as exemplified by Kake, significantly influenced the aesthetics of the gay leather subculture.[6] Edward Lucie-Smith has noted that depictions of masculine gay men by Laaksonen "altered the way gay men think about themselves" and "began to elaborate an identity type, with dress and physical attributes" that countered stereotypes of gay men as weak and effeminate.[6] While the archetype of the masculine leatherman biker was well established in both gay and straight culture by the time of Kake's creation (notably in the 1953 film The Wild One starring Marlon Brando, which Laaksonen cites as a direct influence on his artwork),[5] F. Valentine Hooven III argues that "the leatherman as drawn by Tom of Finland" is "the gold standard, at least within the gay community."[1]

Kake has been described by Susanna Paasonen as Laaksonen's "most iconic character,"[20] and by Hooven as "the gay world’s most familiar pin-up icon."[1] Editor Dian Hanson describes Kake as "a sort of Johnny Appleseed traveling the world on his motorcycle spreading the seeds of liberated, mutually satisfying, ecstatically explicit gay sex."[2] Hanson argues that the series was an expression of Laaksonen's desire to depict sex between men that was freed from internalized homophobia – Laaksonen himself stated that his goal for his art was to draw "proud men who were happy having sex"[2] – noting how characters in Kake "break the affection barrier" by kissing and caressing each other in addition to performing sexual acts, and that Laaksonen depicts Kake assuming both active and passive roles during sex.[12]

The precise number of copies of Kake that have been printed and sold is unknown.[1] The ambiguity around sales figures for Kake can be owed in part to the large number of unsanctioned and unauthorized books featuring Laaksonen's artwork produced from the 1950s through the 1970s. Some of these books were created by publishers using Laaksonen's unreturned original artwork, while others were created through outright copyright infringement through the photocopying and reproduction of authorized editions. Hooven estimates that twenty percent or more of published works featuring Laaksonen's artwork produced between 1950 and 1979 were created without the consent or knowledge of the artist.[15]

Kake appears in the 2017 film Tom of Finland, where he is portrayed by Niklas Hogner.[21] The character also appears in Tom of Finland, The Musical, a musical first staged by the Turku City Theatre in 2017.[20]