i think about this a lot, because growing up i wanted to write books, and still do, but fell in love with comics in my early teens. its been an argument with myself forever. im currently writing a novel alongside my comic of the same story, to get the plot down and to exercise both skills, so im always comparing the two mediums.
for comics:
- easier to get them out there. tapastic and webtoons and tumblr and all that give you lots of easy options
- easier to read. i think more people will read an episode of a webcomic than a chapter of a novel, which is a lot more wordy and engages less parts of the brain. prose is usually a little daunting, a little less accessible.
- more commonly serialised, and publishing in installments gives you steady deadlines to keep you writing, gives you feedback as you go, stops you from lollygagging plot-wise, makes you make Decisions for deadlines... im all for serialisation
- you get to show off not only your writing skills, but your art skills
- its a newer medium, so theres lots more new ground to play with
- theres like, more permission to be 'shallow' or 'trashy.' in comics you can write a story because its fun, but in prose theres an expectation of theres being a deeper meaning. all comics are tacky to snobs, so you dont have to worry so much about snobbery.
- the joy of making comics
cons for comics:
- so much WORK
- your art and writing skills mismatching, so one can drag the other down, which is hard
- you cant be as wordy. too much dialogue and not enough action ticks people off and makes it hard to letter
- your beautiful, loving descriptions never see the light of day. your fuck-it-thatll-do third-try-lucky sketch of a forest does.
- serialisation and deadlines causing forced writing and rushed pages
- taken less seriously
- harder to self publish (i think, might be wrong, but all them images and colour must cause problems)
- editing finished pages is a bitch
pros for novels:
- no drawing required, just write your words and go
- you get to get all pretty with your language and you can, to an extent, go on a bit
- editing is piss easy til you publish
- youre not constrained by things like number of pages a chapter or page-turn pacing or lettering issues. you can write and write and write (you will have to cut a lot of it later, probably, but you got to write it at least)
- theres an increasing interest in serialised novels to read for free online
- theres significantly more classes and reference material on writing prose than drawing comics
- you can get kinda intellectual if you fancy and everyones cool with it
cons:
- still less of an online space for it, and the ones there are are like. full of self insert x harry styles thinly veiled fanfic
- its not a comic, which is inherently cooler
- all your eggs are in your writing basket, so it has to be on point. you cant lean on your art because its not there
- a lot more competition
- comics are easier to read. comics are light reading. novels can quickly become heavy reading, depending on who you are and how much you read
honestly though, id say give it a crack. theres sites like movellas where you can publish anything, and you can submit stuff to tapastic and to magazines. if it dont work out, then you have the makings of a comic script for another crack at that.