Amazon.com (ISBN 031211365X, Paperback)

Perhaps no one has had a greater influence on gay male fashion than illustrator-cartoonist Tom of Finland. In this volume his unusual and triumphant life story is told in words and pictures. The pictures, of course, steal the show, as Tom's bubble-bottomed macho men fight, love, and punish each other. There's still much to be said about Tom's impact on American and European gay culture, but this book provides a good starting point not only for Tom's fans who want to learn about the man behind the leather-clad images, but also for the uninitiated who've always wondered where the leather-cap-and-chaps look origintated. Sadly, with Tom's death the flow of testosterone-packed pictures has stopped, but volumes like this show that there is still life in his legend.