This pretty much ties into how I was going to answer this LOL When it comes to "novice"/"amature" work, I vastly prefer reading comics to novels, because it's surprisingly easy to make a palatable comic even with so-so art and dialogue, vs. the struggle to read through a poorly written/revised novel. In that case, the gestures made through the art go a long ways towards carrying the experience. Looking back through the stories I personally wrote in like Elementary/Middle school recently, at least, this was the case.
When you examine "professional" quality work, it's a lot bigger of a toss up for me. Especially since typically any given story is only available in one format or the other, I don't really fret either way. I guess if a story was available both ways, I'd probably go for the comic, though, as a big art junkie and for time-saving purposes xD