Outside Perspectives

Well, let's see.

I get more feedback from Canada geese than from rubber duckies, because, you know, they're just all honking at me, and-

[laughs]

... you know, just go with the flow.

At it.

But it's all right, so [laughs]But no, I kind of have, like, a tier system for the type of feedback that I need depending on how in-depth the problem is.

So my basic tier is, like, let's say you have a page that you're working on that's, like, right in front of you, and, you know, it's like an action scene and you're just not sure if it reads, if it makes sense.

Can you actually read through the panel layout? That's the kind of thing that pretty much anyone can answer at any moment.

I'm also part of several comic Discords where I'm able to, like, get feedback from other creators, and so that's the type of thing where I'll just drop it into, like, the feedback channel in one of those servers and be like, "Hey, what do you guys think?" And it's a quick and easy way to just get, you know, a one or two-line response or just get a temperature on something or get some quick advice on how to make it better.

The thing about that type of Discord is that you are surrounded by other experts, so to speak.

So these are people who kind of have high visual literacy.

So sometimes I also like to get feedback from people with lower visual literacy, especially if I'm writing for my...

My web comics are for more of an adult audience, but for my graphic novel that's young adult, I want to make sure that the paneling and the visual storytelling is easier to understand for a younger audience.

So that's the type of situation where I might run it by someone who is not an expert and just see if they can make sense of what they're reading.

So that's the simple stuff.

The next tier up, if I want to get kind of a temperature or an overall response from, like, what would a reader think about this without actually having to release an unfinished chunk of story to actual readers, that's when I go to beta readers.

And, you know, I come from a prose background, and beta readers are a lot, you know, more of an ingrained thing in prose culture because it's just, you know, everyone kinda uses them.

And in the web comic space, a lot of people use them, but I feel like it's just not as much a big thing that everyone does it.

So it can be a little bit more challenging to find a beta reader.

I usually go to a friend for that sort of thing, but sometimes that friend is a cartoonist, sometimes they are a prose writer, and that's where, you know, you can get some of that feedback of seeing how a non-expert reader might interpret your work.

I think one aspect of getting feedback on a visual work is that, you know, everyone learns how to read and write in school as a kid.

Most people don't learn, like, high-level visual literacy in school.

It is kind of a self-taught skill for most people.

So you will find a wider range of skill sets among most groups, I feel.

Then, like, the next tier up is for, like, professional work, especially with graphic novels, but I know people who do this also with web comics, is using a professional editor.