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A new book, "Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity, and Homosexuality" (St. Martin's Press), by art historian Micha Ramakers tries to make sense of the invisible hand that jerked off a generation of gay men. It's a schwing-for-the-fences treatise combining the rise of the gay movement, the world of fine art, and of course, porno.

The gay characters in Tom of Finland's art are so masculine they make straight men look like girlie-boys. Recognized as the originator of macho gay porn, the artist died nine years ago but his work lives on in the hearts and crotches of millions of gay men.

Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity, and Homosexuality Martin's Press, 288 pp By Micha Ramakers

Touko Laaksonen, aka "Tom," was born in Finland in 1920. His first commercial gig was drawing half-naked men for Physique Pictorial, a 1950s gawk-and-load homosexual firearm disguised as a straight men's magazine. You know, like Men's Health.

Laaksonen's drawings became enormously popular and Physique Pictorial's publisher, smelling a hit, wanted to promote the artist. But not with a name like Touko. He wanted his readers tripping over their boners, not their tongues. So he christened him "Tom of Finland." So what if it made him sound like a pretentious hairdresser? It was easy to pronounce. And when the blood rushes out of your head to your organs, every bit helps.

As Tom's drawings became more popular he began doing private commissions and exhibitions in sex shops. By the '70s he quit as the chief of ad giant McCann Erickson's Finnish-based art department and lighted for the center of penis cosmology -- America.

In the United States, Tom freelanced to ad agencies as a graphic artist to support his "habit." But soon his habit didn't need support, as his commissions and magazine work generated enough bucks -- and buzz --to stop the freelance gigs.

Ramakers argues that Tom had a profound influence on gay culture because he was the first to connect words everyone assumed were oxymorons: Masculinity and homosexuality. In a world that insisted gay men were sissies, Tom did the unthinkable, portraying them as confident, macho and aggressive.

Every one of Tom's characters has a squarish face, firm chin, thin lips, snub nose, short hair and sideburns. And just about every character is either a lumberjack, cop, construction worker, cowboy, biker, sailor or soldier. Not a florist in the bunch. Squeeze any of his characters and they'd fart testosterone.

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