Gaming websites like Europagamer, PGC, and Clock Draper Spudgun, change their headers once in a blue moon. Here at THC we believe an unvarying masthead is a moribund masthead. For the past two and a half years, the png plaque at the very top of this page has been altered on numerous occasions. Readers willing to join the airlift earn the right to commission a bespoke 32×32 pixel tile, and all of those tiles spend at least a month ‘over the door’.
Observant readers will have noticed that the site’s latest subscriber is a Harrier jump jet fan. Creating recognisable likenesses of specific aircraft types on 1024 pixel black and white canvases, can be a bit of a challenge for an untrained artist like myself – especially if the aircraft in question is a big ‘un -, but along with animals, flying machines are one of the most requested subjects for tiles.
The strangest thing I’ve ever been asked to render in chunky pixels? It’s hard to say, but a tin of Dulux paint, a bottle of Unicum (a Hungarian liqueur), a geologist’s pick, and a Geordie bridge, all spring to mind.
Happily, thus far I’ve never had to refuse a tile request on taste/decency grounds, but the possibility that this might, one day, happen, is thought-provoking. Apart from obvious things like swastikas and SS runes, what symbols and subjects would and should I veto? When does freedom of thought/expression and freedom to offend cross the line into something darker and more dangerous? Big, difficult questions, I wish I could answer with confidence.
I can’t answer the deep questions posed at the end there, but for the benefit of others I can provide context for at least one mystery in the fantastic tapestry above.
The Dulux paint tin is in memory of my Dad, and the many hours we would spend taking turns on The Computer with one sim or another. He passed away unexpectedly in 2019, not long after semi-retiring from 50 years of self-employed painting and decorating.
Our first PC came with Flight Simulator 5, then there was Aces over Europe, TFX, and IL-2 Sturmovik. In his later years whenever I’d visit we’d take turns at the controls in World of Tanks, invariably to laugh/commiserate/congratulate at the nonsense you might imagine a pair of rather unserious gamers might get up to. In multiplayer I’d often play as personal artillery support for his forays behind enemy lines in a tricked-out Leopard – hilarious for us but probably not so for the Very Expensive Tanks we’d occasionally manage to blow to smithereens when they took the bait.
If I recall you did two separate renditions of this tile for me to choose from (AND an excellent P-38) – above and beyond indeed. I am very happy to see it make another appearance after all this time. Thank you, Tim.
While I’m dismayed to see that mine own tile, of Dugout Doug and his fabulous corncob pipe, has been retired, I know that his absence heralds new subscribers and that’s good news.
With respect to taste and decency, I think in the context of military history these things are pretty straightforward.
Runes? No. The lovely stylized crane of Jg. 3 “Udet”? Yes please.
Arkan’s Tigers or PIRA/UVF imagery? Pass. Rising Sun flag of Imperial Japan? Carry on.
I think Justice Stewart Potter’s 1964 take on obscenity fits the bill here: “I know it when I see it.”
I was curious about the Dulux tin! Thanks for sharing. It’s a nice tribute to your dad.
I can’t claim anything as meaningful for mine, I’ve just been playing a lot of Tiny Combat Arena…
I hadn’t spotted the timelapse animation when I first read this article. I’d forgotten the U-50 tile, earned through entirely random luck, and love the closing charge across the bottom.
We love your iconic artwork and writing style Tim. Very well done sir, bravo! As always, you make an interesting point and we can tell you have a good heart. There are very few of those like you left in journalism today. A dying breed. I don’t know about others, but I stopped reading Clock Draper Spudgun the minute you left it.
While we absolutely get it that drawing swastikas and unit runes could potentially bring a buttock-clenchingly-cringe-fest-o-thon response from “certain journalists”, legally there shouldn’t be a problem? I’m not going to say any more here, but if I may just please point out (obvious to us yes, but to others possibly not) that there wasn’t a problem in 1989 when Lucasfilm Games put drawings of swastikas on the game box (and manual) of Their Finest hour: The Battle of Britain, and children’s comics like Action, Battle and Warlord regularly had drawings of them (including the front covers) throughout the 1970’s, while the BBC’s Dad’s Army of course had them in the iconic intro. Is Steven Spielberg a criminal for showing swastikas in his films? Or is the film industry the real crime boss for awarding him academy awards for doing it? Consider that one simple hypocrisy, and now consider how much better and happier things are in today’s society… or wait, what? If anyone actually believes things are better now – with ever more criminally insane censorship laws being put into place as I type – then I’ll let you get back to watching Disney+ and the recent opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics while chugging back your Bud Lite. I don’t mean you personally Tim, I just mean for anyone else reading this in general.
Just because a gang of criminals somehow managed to pass a (now overturned) law about certain historical WW2 symbols being banned in videogames (and the recently missing decals on Airfix models of Stukas, Heinkels and Messerschmitts), it doesn’t mean one has to blindly obey it as if repeatedly screamed at by a Dalek (or by a repeatedly screaming hate-fuelled spitting blue-haired leftist). Especially when those laws don’t even apply in one’s own country. Just because one might happen to draw a mushroom cloud cartoon of a nuclear explosion, it doesn’t mean one agrees with it or likes it; same as drawing a German WW2 swastika, an Israeli hexagram, Soviet Hammer and Sycle or indeed anything else from world history. The worm-tonged corrupt bureaucrats who claim to ban such symbols are effectively promoting them, making them into an issue where there wasn’t an issue before. Good, normal honest working people never bothered wasting our time giving it a second thought.
Of course, those who are obsessed with historical censorship (including destroying statues and monuments) by twisting, manipulating and weaponising a toxic cancel culture for their own gain are the true Nazis. We know the Nazi-style “book burning” of Roald Dahl was just one example of its insanity. As a fellow writer and fellow victim of cancel culture, we both know how dangerous cancel culture can be:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230302234039/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-offensive-matilda-witches-twits/
On that note, I think the best thing to do is do what Roald would do; “don’t give a flying fig!” Keep calm and carry on! Or are we going to allow the criminal progenitors of cancel-culture to dictate to us that a WW2 fighter pilot like Mr Dahl (who might well have justifiably displayed swastikas as kill icons on the cowling of his Hurri) as a “Nazi”? Anyone who says this hero was that, is not only criminally insane (or in his words, “an idiot”) but a 100% true Nazi. Projection at its most classic finest – claim your enemy is what you are yourself.
Thanks again Tim for recommending Soto Cinematics brilliant take on Roald Dahl’s Going Solo! For anyone who missed it, it’s a must watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akp7WwnGJ8I
PS: As I am (very soon) about to join the Airlift, please don’t worry. I’m not going to request a swastika icon (but thanks for the idea) haha!
Thanks for the thoughts and the vote of confidence, Clive.
When it comes to swastikas, I’m in the “context and intent are everything” camp. While I’d argue against any law that forbade devs or comic book artists from putting Hakenkreuze in historically appropriate places, or using them in satirical work, I wouldn’t want to be associated with a website that included a standalone one in its header, or participate in a march where anyone was carrying a Nazi Party flag.
Just curious, how does one get their tile placed after their name in the comment section? I only ever figured out how to change the image via my WordPress “gravatar.”
Consider it done. If any other airlifters have yet to be enbrowned or entiled, please post here and I’ll rectify matters.
I’m missing my Dugout Doug!
Tim, we’ve all had plenty of reason to trust you judgment thus far on what works and what doesn’t, and I’m sure if something raises questions, this community would discuss it sensibly. My only real veto would be anything associated with mining engineers – they are the natural enemy of the geologist, and a pack of vagabonds and scoundrels.