On Loves Lost

Jun

Oh Grafik. How I’ll miss you. Like any relationship, it’s only now that you’re gone that I realise how much I cared. But it seems I didn’t care enough. When I heard the bad news I sat down with a stack of back issues and poured over them as if they were snapshots of happier, care-free times. I started reading you some time back in 2004, in the middle of your MadeThought run, and continued faithfully reading – and loving – you through the SEA days. But then something happened. We drifted apart; the times didn’t seem as care-free, and your increased cover price pushed me away. But it wasn’t your fault; it was mine. I guess I was just too insecure, I was convinced that you were too high-end for me and that I couldn’t afford you. I skipped an issue or two. Then two become five.

“Next thing I knew I saw you being read by some other guy with a cooler haircut than me and you two seemed so happy together.”

I knew then it was over. Some times I’d pass you by while in Borders (remember Borders? Those were the days) and look longingly at you but I couldn’t muster the courage to take you to the till.
If only I had put more effort into our relationship – maybe if I had bought fewer t-shirts with whimsical graphics and spent more time with you – then perhaps we’d be together still, laying on the sofa, laughing at typographic in-jokes.

Good-bye Grafik. If you do return, I promise I’ll be a better man.

PS – I still remember that cover you wore in issue 145. No-one wears two colour-foil blocking as well as you do.