Insider: Hello Mr

The New York-based magazine about men who date men, Hello Mr is back with its thickest issue to date, featuring a smoking hot Parson James as the cover mister.

As the seventh issue hits the stands, we catch up with founder and creative director Ryan Fitzgibbon and editor Fran Tirado to learn more about the trials and tribulations of putting it together.

In the making of this issue we…

Listened to
Of course, our cover mister Parson James’ EP, along with new Gwen Stefani, Rih Rih, Tinashe, and strangely, a lot of Yo-Yo Ma. And of course our April playlist:

Read
The new The Gentlewoman, a few issues of New York Times Magazine, plus The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, The First Bad Man by Miranda July, What Belongs To You by Garth Greenwell, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (which we do not recommend).

Used
Master & Dynamic headphones, Task Rabbit, and the DailyHoroscope app, because we like to feel in control of the unknown.

Worked from
A temporary office next door to Rookie mag (definitely no fan-girling at all) and eventually our new office at WeWork in Williamsburg.

Sacrificed
Our nights, weekends, and Wednesday yoga classes.

Met
Our deadline, and our goal to publish our first ever comic (by Steve Orlando and Sina Grace).

I drew a story about by @thesteveorlando in the newest ish of @hellomr ! Radical Faeries FTW https://t.co/Ow9ajJqUXD pic.twitter.com/Wo57TFzBjQ

— Sina Grace (@SinaGrace) 14 April 2016

Were surprised by
The amount of content that came from non-metropolitan cities.

Were excited about
The amount of content being pushed that starts conversations about race, identity, and what it means to be a person of colour in 2016.

Wish that we had
More pages to fit more stories about whales and erotic encounters in the woods.

And everyone should buy a copy because
It’s our most beautiful, most impressive, and *thickest* issue to date.

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