There comes a point in every creators life where you have to step out from your cave and actually get feedback.

When I had completed a final story draft and rough layout, I knew that I wanted to get a bit more feedback before I started on the final artwork. Up until that point, I had only talked with people about the comic in vague, broad terms and only discussed specifics about plot points with my wife - but no one else had read anything about it.

Ideally, I like to get input throughout the development process of any creative project. I don’t believe in waiting until something is completely finished, as - in my experience - there are few things that can’t be improved with regular feedback (note - not all feedback is equal, and it’s still down to you how you implement the feedback).

So - borrowing some methodology from the digital industry I work in by day - I decided that I would try making a minimum viable product or MVP to get very early feedback.

Whats an MVP?

Definitions of MVP vary and, for some reason, spark fierce (and rather pointless debate).

But what I mean is making the quickest, realistic but minimal version of a thing that can be shown to customers/users in order to get as realistic feedback as possible. Its about expelling the least amount of effort in order to get good quality data, which you can use to keep iterating to make your thing better.

As this is my first comic that meant showing a version of the comic with good enough pencil roughs, dialogue balloons and layout but not anything nearing final art.

This might terrify most people - but I knew that I would be getting the feedback from mostly friends and family. I generally wasnt after feedback on the art, it was more the storytelling and script.

So after finishing the script and thumbnails, I started developing the full sized layout and pencil roughs using the Comic Draw App on my iPad.

Comic Draw is pretty much an all-in-one solution for making comics on the iPad which you can export to pdf.

Feedback questions

After I completed my MVP I needed a way to collect feedback. I couldn’t really find any specific resources for getting feedback on comics, so I put together my set of questions using articles about beta feedback for novels. Here’s the questions I came up with:

• Rate your interest in the following comic book genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Action, Horror
• Did the story hold your interest, from the start? If not, why not?
• What do you think the point of the story was? Were there any themes or meaning that stood out to you?
• Did you get oriented fairly quickly at the beginning as to whose story it is, and where and when it’s taking place?
• Was there a point at which you felt the story lagged or you became less interested in finding out what was going to happen next? Where, exactly?
• Was there enough conflict, tension, and intrigue to keep your interest? If not, what do you think was missing?
• Were there any parts that confused you? Or even frustrated or annoyed you? Which parts, and why?
• Did you notice any story inconsistencies or plot holes? If so, where exactly? What did you think of the ending? How obvious or predictable was it?
• Name ONE thing you most liked about the comic, overall? Name ONE thing you least liked about the comic, overall?
• Can you think of anything else about the comic that could be improved?

I then setup a Google Form with the instructions, the questions and added a link to a pdf of the MVP, hosted on Dropbox.

I also set it up to be anonymous and not collect any personal data - both GDPR compliant and will help get more honest feedback. I sent the survey to people I already knew, but then also configured my Mailchimp account to send an autoresponder to anyone who signs up to my newsletter with a link to form.

Results

The responses soon trickled through and were both positive and gave me helpful pointers which made the the comic much better. Some samples of the feedback below:

Yes, it was intriguing - you get a good sense of the situation and characters early on. The characters play on well know themes (hot shot pilot with sassy robot companion) without being a pastiche. Especially the protagonists very British demeanor - kind of a throwback to WW1 RAF Pilot, which is endearing.

Yes, it’s packed with action, it holds your attention throughout

It’s about hubris, and the assumption that civilizations that are not based on technology are not as advanced or that their knowledge doesn’t count

If you are also starting out - you might want to consider something like this. In any case, the questions I put together above might be helpful for you.

Let me know if they’re helpful.