We did not anticipate such a massive following with our first volume, and we have sold out. You can continue to purchase this copy, but we expect the last limited run of prints of this first volume by December 22nd, arriving together with the second volume of Kraven. If you buy today, the magazine will be shipped after December 23rd, and it will be the last copies of the first volume. I have some stores with some magazines lefts. I will try to buy yours from them, but it can be guaranteed.
Volume #1 The Comeback
In 2011, I was a 23-year-old working as a server at a restaurant in The Palm Hotel in Miami Beach. When covering breaks for the gift shop attendant, I used to read O - Oprah’s magazine. I was amazed how the publication empowered and celebrated women within articles one could relate to. O’ content provided tools that anyone could apply to improve their lives. I quickly thought that our LGBTQ+ community could benefit from something so powerful and positive but our publications were far below that standard too often. Every day I thought about ideas for an LGBTQ+ publication that could impact our community, one that could provide bold, engaging content that would be meaningful and empowering. I started to hide at work while making notes on what I would need to create such a magazine. My boss often told him, “Go back to the floor you’re not opening a magazine.” Those words only made me more determined to make my vision come true.
I went door-to-door with my best friend Nery and just a one-page sheet of paper “Media Kit” of my vision for Kraven. Two months after quitting my server job, I found Kraven Magazine. I then returned to my former boss to leave some magazines for the restaurant. After a few issues in Miami, I decided to expand to the prominent San Francisco gay market, where I faced challenges that I quickly overcame. Using platforms like Grindr and adam4adam, I found contributors for my first issue of Kraven Magazine in San Francisco, including S.M. Brennan, whose work I fell for right away. Neither of us could have predicted the future we had in store would be far more than just one travel article Brennan originally was meant to write. Standard written English often cramped my eloquence, and in Brennan, I found a trusted partner who became the editor and later an investor in Kraven. After a year, the magazine went nationwide. It caught the attention of Charlie Pflaumer, a New York City-based graphic designer, who reached out to me with interest in becoming part of the team. I loved his style of design and creativity, and Charlie joined Brennan to make Kraven Magazine’s first team.
In the summer of 2014, one of Kraven’s contributors, Raad Starr, wrote an article about the misrepresentation of our community in the comic book industry. This again set my creativity and ambition ablaze and led to the creation of Kraven Comics. This new endeavor was why Kraven Magazine went on hiatus, but I never forgot the high quality of its content, and I never wavered my commitment to my vision. When I reached out to LGBTQ+ publications for help spreading the word about Kraven Comics, they all asked for a fee from $750 to $5,000 - for one article about the comic. And yet when Marvel or DC Comics or another large imprint, none of whom are committed to the gay community, turna character LGBTQ+ for marketing purposes, those same queer publications gave columns and columns of press for free. When Kraven Comics needed it the most during the first few months of the pandemic, it was two publications the South Florida Gay News and Peach Atlanta. Their features and exposure helped Kraven Comic’s successful Kickstarter campaign that paved the way for what Kraven Comics is today.
This got my creative synapses firing again. I wondered if there could be a publication that could sustain itself while providing a voice to members of our community. A journal committed to excellence and diversity in all its forms and in which our community members could find the support they needed to thrive in difficult times. So at the start of 2022, now that Kraven Comics has two series with a total of 10 books in the franchise and is being pitched to studios, I knew: “It’s time to bring Kraven Magazine back.” Kraven Magazine 2.0 would have this new concept inspired by my experience with Kraven Comics.
We are working hard to bring visibility to many content creators, thinkers, and business owners, looking for people with extraordinary stories who can motivate and inspire our community challenging the norm to engage topics that may be hard to talk about. But most importantly: giving chances. Thanks to those who have supported Kraven. We proudly welcome you to the first volume of Kraven Magazine 2.0, The Comeback.