Let's get physicalbr /br /Tom's cowboys, loggers, roughnecks, and roustaboutsbr /br /As a boy, Tom's first crush was a strapping young farmhand who worked the fields around his family home. Finland is a land of tough physical men, catching fish in the icy sea; cutting logs in the endless forests; threshing oats, rye, and barley on the farms. Tom, a more sensitive boy, admired these rough men and their distinctive clothing, designed for protection and utility. He later said, "When I was young, leather was worn by people who worked outside because it was warm. All the men who wore leather, they were the type of men which I adored."br /br /When he began to draw he celebrated these early idols, improving their wardrobes with tight jeans, faded T-shirts, and thigh-high beak-toed Lappish boots. It was a young logger in this gear who appeared on the spring 1957 cover of Physique Pictorial, introducing Tom to the world. In the decades to follow Tom added truckers, repairmen, construction workers, circus roustabouts, and the American cowboy to his roster of working-class heroes. Though just sexual fantasies for him, his portrayal of blue-collar lovers helped working class gays accept their true selves.br /br /The Little Book of Tom of Finland: Blue Collar traces Tom's fascination with working men in one compact and affordable package. A brawny lineup of multi-panel comics and single-panel drawings and paintings is set alongside archival and contextual material, including historic film stills and posters, personal photos of Tom, sketches, and Tom's own reference photos. pAls Junge schwärmte Tom für einen strammen Landarbeiter, der die Felder nahe dem Wohnhaus von Toms Familie beackerte. Finnland, so die Mär, ist ein Land, das mit kernigen Burschen reich gesegnet ist, die im Eiswasser angeln, in endlosen Wäldern unermüdlich Holz fällen und auf Bauernhöfen immerzu Hafer, Roggen und Gerste dreschen. Tom, ein eher sensibler Typ, bewunderte diese Raubeine in ihrer derben Kluft: "Als ich jung war, wurde Leder von Leuten getragen, die im Freien arbeiteten, weil es sie warm hielt. Alle Männer, die Leder trugen, gehörten zu jenem Typus Mann, den ich anhimmelte."/ppDie Folgen dieser pubertären Prägung sind bekannt: In den USA ergänzte Tom das rustikal-ländliche Personal seiner Sexfantasien um klassische amerikanische Malochergestalten, um hypermaskuline Trucker, behelmte Bauarbeiter und Monteure, um Zirkushandlanger und natürlich um die Figur des Cowboys mit all ihren sexuellen Implikationen - allesamt Archetypen tougher Männlichkeit und damit die idealen Bewohner des mythischen "Tomlands". The Little Book of Tom: Blue Collar zeigt neben Toms Comics und Illustrationen auch Material aus seinem privaten Archiv, Skizzen, Fotos und historische Filmbilder und -plakate./p