{"product_id":"the-little-book-of-tom-blue-collar","title":"The Little Book of Tom: Blue Collar","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTom's first childhood love was a young, sturdy day laborer who worked in the fields near his home. Finland is a land of robust men who fish in the icy sea, chop wood in endless forests, and thresh oats, rye, and barley on farms. Tom, a more sensitive boy, admired these rough men with their characteristic attire, designed to offer them protection and comfort. Later, he would say: “When I was young, leather was worn by people who worked outdoors because it kept you very warm. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll those men who wore leather were the kind of men I adored.”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen he began drawing, he paid tribute to these youth idols by enhancing their wardrobe with \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003etight jeans, faded t-shirts, and tall narrow-toed Lapland boots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. In fact, it was a young lumberjack wearing this outfit on the cover of Physique Pictorial who introduced Tom to the world in the spring of 1957. In the following decades, the artist added \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003etruckers, mechanics, construction workers, circus strongmen, and typical American cowboys to his selection of working-class heroes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Although they were only sexual fantasies for him, his depiction of these working-class lovers helped working-class gays accept themselves.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Little Book of Tom: Blue Collar\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e captures Tom’s fascination with laborers in a compact and affordable volume. A \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ewide selection of comic strips, drawings, and full-page illustrations\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, accompanied by archival and contextual material including frames and posters from historic films, personal photographs of Tom, sketches, and the images that inspired the artist.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taschen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57056667599192,"sku":"LIB-TH-TA-746","price":15.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0925\/8464\/0856\/files\/TOM_OF_FINLAND_BLUE_COLLAR_PO_INT_3D_44025.jpg?v=1776118162","url":"https:\/\/eu.plasticbooks.com\/en\/products\/the-little-book-of-tom-blue-collar","provider":"Plastic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}