Tom of Finland - The Mystery of 'Mr Universe'

Tom of Finland - Mr Universe 01

If you are a fan of Tom of Finland, you will probably be familiar with this image. It's shows two leather guys pondering the world of bodybuilding and the 'Mr Universe' competition, which seems to be coming to a venue near them 'next year'. This image is often presented as a stand-alone work, presumably because of its aspirational, 'Pride' message, but it's actually part of a 'Mr Universe' series which was widely documented in its time* but seems to have become lost or dispersed since then. This article is an attempt to reconstruct it from contemporary sources. 

 

*The Tom of Finland Retrospective (vol 1) dates this image to 1963, but the 'Mr Universe' series seems to have appeared in late 1961 (see below). It's not impossible that Tom produced this picture later, but it's obviously related, and I have chosen to make it the opening image for my reconstructed series. 

 

According to Valentine-Hooven (in "Tom of Finland, His Life and Times" p101) Tom did the series for Rex Pickering at 'Scan' Magazine, and it was indeed first advertised in 'Scan' issue 9. It was also advertised simultaneously in issue 17 of 'Man Alive' (which we can date precisely to Nov 1961). In the latter source, it is actually advertised as a 'Hussar Studio' product. Around this time, Hussar also published Tom's 'Thieving Cowboy' series, about which there is even wilder confusion over publication dates! See the 2023 mitchmen 'Thieving Cowboy' article for more on Tom's relationship with Royale /Hussar.

 

 

Tom of Finland - The Leather Outfit Thief 01 (my title)

 

  We don't know exactly how Tom viewed 'bikers' at this time, in the 'Mr Universe' image (top) they are drawn as cute boys with bubble butts, looking slightly naive in their leather jackets. However, in a contemporary series illustrated above, the leather man is portrayed as a muscular, god-like creature, worshipped from the bushes by an envious youth. It's another series (like the Thieving Cowboy) in which a set of clothes is stolen, and the same thing happens in the second of the 'Kake' series. In 1964, it's the motorbike itself that gets stolen. All these miscreants end up on the receiving end of a severe belting, and Tom's work is littered with handsome leather men treating eager, initiates in the same way. That's a good excuse for including one of my own favourite Tom images....

 

Tom of Finland - Leather Initiation

 In later life, Tom was absorbed into the world of leather that fascinated him so much. Quite which end of the belt he saw himself is not known, but the experience of having his own drawings stolen in 1954 and widely pirated after he became famous may be relevant. In that context, the aspiration of two biker dandies to become more muscular and, by implication, more manly, makes perfect sense. 

 

 

Tom of Finland - Test Your Strength

 

This image, with the same youthful admirer from the Leather Outfit Thief, is also from 1961. It's actually part of the 'Circus Set' but embodies, in a more positive way, the idea of manly role models for gay men to aspire to.

 

The 'Mr Universe' series isn't about joining the Leather Clan, but it is very much about justice and assertiveness. The scarcity of surviving, intact images is probably a reflection of Tom's attempts to control the distribution of his own work. In 1965 '101 Boys Art Quarterly' was able to publish only fragments of some of the individual images. In the same year, AMG published a couple of (complete) images from the set in Physique Pictorial with a typically waspish comment to the effect that they offered many of Tom's series for sale, but this wasn't one of them!

 

Valentine-Hooven says there were 12 to 15 pictures in the series, I have identified a group of 17 images that seem related, of which 2 or 3 are dubious, but interesting. 

 

The story begins in the next post.