Comic’s And The Written Word

Comics And The Written Word

I was able to interview the creator of htmlcomics.com and I think you’ll be surprised by how it all came about, so continue reading!

I spoke with a gentleman and htmlcomics.com creator Gregory Hart over the phone to find out more about this website.

NERDSOCIETY.COM (NS): What brought about htmlcomics.com?

GREGORY HART (GH): I am a programmer, and at the time I was working for the United States Postal Service to create a program to reduce the workforce and add accuracy. This program also had to be able to be repaired quickly to reduce downtime.  After the creation of this CAD based program one of the guys asked me if it could be used for comic books.

NS: What is the process used and how many people are involved?

GH: I, myself handle most of the data but I have a few people preparing the information by renaming the scans of the pages I receive through donations–I haven’t read a comic in 40 years ::LOL!::

Once the scans are renamed into numerical order they are entered into the database in a format resembling a ZIP file and in 4-5 minutes, 500 books are generated onto the file system.

NS: Wow! That is completely different from what I thought was involved with it, I imagined someone sitting there with a stack of comics, scanning each page and uploading them into a single file one by one–that’s amazing!  How do the comic book companies feel about htmlcomics.com?

GH: Both Marvel and DC leave me alone as long as I stay 6 months to a year behind. Image is more complicated due to their book titles changing often.  Also, htmlcomics.com is non commercial, we don’t sell the books for download and they are unable to be downloaded–consider it like a lending library.

Comics And The Written Word

NS: What’s missing from the website?

GH: If I had the manpower I would want to create a search engine based on specific characters that appear in each book and a blurb giving a synopsis of each book.

NS: What is your goal with the html site?

GH: If I had the manpower, I calculated that in about 2 years with 8 hour-a-day shifts that the entire Library of Congress can be available to everyone through the internet. Once again, it would be public as a library.

NS: So, this goes beyond comics, I noticed that the Bible and other written works were available on the comics website.  What’s your favorite book? Comic or other?

GH: I’m not religious or devoted to faith but my favorite book is the Bible. The Bible contains history, law and entertainment. The different perspectives of the people involved have similar stories referring to the fascinating things done by Jesus giving a sort of credibility.

There are also the conflicts pertaining to prayer, the 10 commandments, the existence of a Devil and taking the Fallen Star out of context.

NS: Any final thoughts?

GH: I believe that one’s actions benefits life as a whole. The universe was created for life and the more you benefit life the more you get back.

NS: I want to thank Gregory for his time.  The interview over the phone was very fascinating to me.

Thanks Gregory.

…and thank you reader.

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