Kake (character)

Kake is a fictional comic book character created by Tom of Finland, and is the protagonist of a comic series by the author. The character was created in 1968, though Tom had been toying with the concept of an on-going male character since 1968.Hanson; 'The Complete Kake'; Taschen; p. 9. In each story, Kake goes on a wild adventure, having sex with all kinds of men, including cops, sailors, lumberjacks, businessmen and even cowboys and palace guards. The location of the story, such as a park, a men's room or the wild west, also play a role in the content.

The format of each Kake story was simple: composed of up to twenty panels, with one panel per page, the stories were mostly told without dialog. The occasional exclamatory line of dialog is usually written in English. Though the comic's creator is Finnish, all incidental writing (signs, graffiti) are written in English. Twenty-six different stories were inevitably created, amounting to over a total of 500 drawings. http://lambiek.net/artists/t/tom_of_finland.htm

General Character Description

Kake is a highly-sexed, highly-idealized muscular male character of indeterminate age, with exaggerated organs and body parts. He is a white male with black hair and a black mustache. In most stories, Kake is portrayed wearing a leather jacket, leather britches, knee high glossy leather riding boots, and a leather policeman's hat. As with most of Tom of Finland's work, the imagery is heavily reliant on fetishized uniforms, and Kake sometimes is as (or disguises himself as) a policeman, auto mechanic, a chauffeur and other iconic masculine costumes. The men with whom Kake is depicted are all similarly endowed and have the same large builds with broad shoulders and square jaws.

Publications

The Kake stories were first published in Denmark in 1968 by the publishing house DTF. The series was also printed in the same country by Coq in 1971 and in Sweden that same year by Revolt Press.

The series was anthologized several times, including several editions of the gay comic anthology Meat Men, which is how many American readers were first introduced to the character. The German publisher Taschen published the 700+ page book The Complete Kake, edited and with an introduction by Dian Hanson, in 2008.

The rights to all of Tom of Finland's drawings are retained by the Tom of Finland Foundation of Los Angeles.

Category: Fictional characters in comics Category: 1968 births Category: LGBT literature Category: LGBT characters in comics