Mike Parker, 85, died at his home in Portland, Maine. He was, as some call him, the grandfather of modern typography, having made (or made famous) many of the fonts that we ignore in favor of Helvetica every day. Luckily, Helvetica is his baby. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's one of the most popular fonts in the world.

If you haven't, we've cobbled together an oral history of Mike's influence, described by the fonts themselves.

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Georgia: Mike was a great guy. A great guy. Never a dull moment with him. It was like working with a real professional. He... he dedicated his life to his art. And it was art. He saw things in fonts that other people would've missed. I mean, shit, man. Everyone knows Helvetica.

Helvetica: Yeah. I'd be nowhere without him.

Arial Black: What nobody tells you is that Helvetica, before Mike got to him anyway, used to be known as Neue Haas Grosse. I called him 'Neue.'

Helvetica: I was playing clubs back then. Nothing too crazy. Made a few dollars, got a few ladies. Was wondering why I wasn't taking off.

Georgia: I remember seeing Neue at a club off 43rd. He was different but not different enough for the typefaceheads. It was like the new shit people were getting into from Germany, all those modern fonts, but Helvie -- he also kept it traditional.

Arial Black: Helvie was playing these sets at Birdland just kerning, kerning away. The urban kids and the hipsters loved him, but he didn't make the crossover for a while. He was good. Real good. But he needed something to happen.

Trebuchet: The way I remember hearing it, Helvie... I think he was called 'Neue Haas Grosse' at the time... Helvie was just doing his thing for a while and then Parker saw him, saw something in him. Said that he loved what he did with his lowercase As, man. At that time Helvie hadn't even heard of linotype. Mike introduced him to linotype, which is now the industry standard. Mike Parker is to fonts what Brian Epstein was to the Beatles, man.

Helvetica: I was being repped by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman at the time, which was good at the time, put a roof over my head, and then Mike Parker came in and added me to the Linotype family. And that's how that happened.

Courier New: Jealous? Not at all. You need a Courier? You want a new one? That's me.

Georgia: It made a lot of other fonts jealous.

Arial Black: No comment.

Helvetica: After Parker put me in the Linotype family, that's when the drugs and the women started. I started showing up to print with my uppercase E's and P's all over the place. I'm sure there's some early footage of me in a Playboy mag looking haggard. I don't remember a lot of the 60s. I was all over the place. Billboards. Magazines. You name it. Those were crazy times, amigo.

Georgia: That was the golden age of fonts. I remember being at a party with Brian Wilson, you know, of the Beach Boys? Too wild.

Arial Black: So Helvie is showing up all over the place. Nobody gave a shit about me until the Jackass logo, anyway. But now they can't get enough of me. Helvetica is the U2 of fonts. I'm the real deal.

Courier New: Parker said that I reminded him of old typewriters and told me to play my strengths. And he was right. I could've been nowhere had Parker not given me that direction.

Helvetica: Parker had the bright idea right around the time computers were coming up, around the early '80s, to digitize the fonts. Called it Bitstream.

Impact: Bitstream really changed the game. I was kicking around, playing store signs and random flyers in Seattle and Duluth. Did a couple posters for state fairs but before Bitstream, before Parker, man. I owe my life to him.

Arial Black: Bitstream really was a game changer. It put the fonts on a computer. Now anyone with a laptop can access me, or Helvie, or whomever. I've even heard of some hipsters getting back into the old catalogs.

Georgia: Then there was Comic Sans.

Helvetica: Did you interview Comic Sans for this?

Comic Sans: It was the '90s. We were all on computers for the first time. It ain't my fault people don't know how to use me right. Those other fonts are just mad everyone knows my name.

Arial Black: Didn't Comic Sans date Courtney Love for a little while? Like, right around The People vs Larry Flynt there's pictures of Comic Sans and her leaving La Grenouille looking coked out of their skulls. Fk that guy. It's fonts like him that make the rest of us look like jokes.

Comic Sans: I've recently found religion.

Georgia: We all owe it to Mike Parker, man. He will be missed. He was one cool, cool cat with a great eye for spacing and sizing. That man knew how to kern, man. He kerned with the best. You can say all you want about him but I'll just remember playing those early shows with him, before the fame, before the pussy and the drink and the money, back when we just wanted to be on a page, man. Any page.

Helvetica: It was those early days with Mike that made us who we really are. He'll really be missed.

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