There's been lots of debates about which ones people prefer to read, or which ones they think are more or less challenging to work on, but I'd like to ask a simpler question (which is especially relevant to people like me who work in both mediums): which ones do you prefer to work on, and why?
Personally-- and I hesitate to say this on social media where I actually post art, which is why I'm saying it here-- I think my comic-making era is coming to an end.
I only hesitate to say it because I've actually announced a bunch of minor comic projects in recent months, and to my actual followers it would send mixed messages. ^^; But 'minor' is the key word there-- I think my comics need to start becoming more of an unserious hobby, rather than a big undertaking that I spend most of my artistic energy on.
It's just...all my comic projects are getting so depressingly stagnant. =/ My most recent minor project is about to end after a year and a half, and all reader interaction has just about disappeared. The latest addition to the series received ONE relevant comment, which didn't even mention anything that happened in the story. Just generic condolences/congrats on finishing the project.
For contrast, the initial concept art raked in 13 comments...and that was already much lower than numbers I had received in the past. Things just seem to keep getting worse instead of better. :[
And making comics is already SO HARD. I've said before that I don't actually like making comics, and I'll say it again: I don't like it. >_< It just happens to be the fastest, most convenient method of visual storytelling I have available to me (plus I'm damn good at it). I mean, my only other choice is animation, and I like that even less.
BUT, at least my animation audience is growing instead of shrinking. I'm very willing to spend hours suffering for my craft if it actually gets results; if people actually appreciate it. I've prioritized my comic audience(s) for years and yet I basically don't exist to them anymore; meanwhile I've been neglecting my animation audience for years and yet it just keeps coming back stronger and with more enthusiasm. 
That's actually encouraging. It makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time.
And it doesn't even have to be that dramatic...for example, the flipside of this discussion, my novels.
I do like to write; I prefer scripts over prose, but I've slowly been warming up to novel-writing over the years since I started taking it seriously.
Of course, my novels aren't exactly popular...I already discussed that in a certain thread about discontinuing them on Tapas until further notice. ^^; And even though they are doing better on Royal Road, I stopped receiving any comments at all several months ago.
But there are STILL signs of growth: for one thing, I actually gain new followers. And with those new followers come larger numbers of views, not smaller ones.
The site-reported 'average' on Lune Levant is 177, but I don't actually know what that's based on, because per update I feel like I get more. I remember being concerned that, before I posted the final chapter of Book 2, I was too far away from the 14,000-view milestone to actually reach it before the next hiatus. But lo and behold, somehow my 31 followers pulled in the roughly 250 views I needed to get there. ^^ It's actually over 14,300 now.
Even those empty numbers without a single comment to back them up are encouraging, because at least they actually GROW. And that's AFTER the hiatus between Book 1 and 2. If I had taken a similar amount of time off for a comic project, I would never have been able to recover that kind of momentum (as evidenced by what happened to DotPQ...)
"So what, Doki; you like writing novels better than drawing comics just because people pay more attention to them??" Partly yes, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It feels GOOD to be rewarded for your work, and I'm tired of pretending it doesn't/shouldn't matter.
But in addition to that...it's just a more pleasant all-around experience. I don't have to work as hard just to get motivated; rarely do I look at a novel in-progress and dread having to work on the next scene the way I do when I draw literally ANY comic.
And also, it comes without the emotional baggage and pre-emptive disappointment that drawing comics for years has beaten into me at this point. I don't completely HATE drawing comics...there are times when I have fun, and I always love looking at my finished work, especially from recent years when I really started to gain skill. But it's all marred by how long and hard I worked just to have no one care.
And having to face those memories, while staring down the barrel of several more years of fruitless work just to tell a complete story (because as we all know, comic-making takes a long-a$$ time)...it's utterly demoralizing. I'm not exactly famous for finishing projects, but I'm surprised that I haven't quit even more of them, considering what I get out of it for my efforts.
Meanwhile, if I write a novel and no one cares...at least it wasn't a huge energy sink. I probably spent half a year just noodling with it whenever I felt like and having a good time. ^^ And remembering how hard people ignored it in the past (like on Tapas...) detracts from the experience much less, because of that fact. At least it wasn't hard. At least I didn't have to force myself. At least I didn't have to sacrifice a HUGE chunk of my one life on this earth just to finish it.
And at least I didn't have to live in constant fear of people just...forgetting about it. =/ Telling me they love the beginnings of my ideas, only to be frustratingly silent after I put in the hard work to bring those ideas to life.
Maybe someday novel-writing will bring with it that same despair of a thousand broken 'promises'. But so far it hasn't, and as such, it's what I'd much rather be doing.
