Oh, right, I do know why I’m not at ease with written serials: continuity.

When you’re doing a comic or TV series, the common thread is visual: the drawing style, the actors, the photography — the credits, even. You can do a Cops parody and it’s still an X-Files episode. You can do one full hour of people just staring at each other, and it’s still a Carnivàle episode. You can do any kind of filler — story-less gags, full-page illustrations, all kind of sketches, meta stuff… — and it’s still your webcomic. Whatever strikes your fancy, whatever you’re in a mood to do, you can do it when you don’t feel like advancing the general plot right now.

All of these, in writing, you can’t. You don’t have a visual aspect to hold on to: all you have is your writing style, and your story. You can’t take a vacation from both at the same time, and you can hardly take a vacation from either, because they’re tied together. Once you’re started, you’ve got to go on the same tracks, there’s no way out.

Sure, it’s fine when it’s a paid gig for a newspaper or magazine. But not for a hobby, ,and particularly not for me.