Throughout this semester I noticed that the more comics I read, the "better" I got at reading them -- This is hard to explain, but the best way I can put it is to compare it to reading Shakespeare in high school. The first one I read was totally painful, but the more I got used to his language the easier they became to understand. I think that comics are the same way; a first-time comic reader won't pick up on all the subtle messages conveyed throughout the comic.
The biggest benefit in storytelling over that of the novel is that the comic has so many different layers of communication whereas the novel has only a few (the written word, punctuation, paragraphing -- any others writing majors??). Thus, the comic trumps the novel in the ways to tell a story, but as I said, I think you need a reader who is attune to these signals to fully comprehend the comic's story. As I make my final comic I'm hoping people pick up on some of my subtle queues, for example, but who knows.
I believe the novel does a better job of character and setting development that any comic though. The author really just has the capacity to write as much as they want whereas the comic has some limitations in how much information it can convey. This isn't to say that a graphic novel doesn't have as much information in it as a novel, but a novel's author can do in a paragraph what might take the comic writer five pages.
I feel like I'm comparing apples to oranges though writing the last paragraph. I honestly hate "better than or worse than" questions; they're always way too subjective and I try to convince myself of an answer for the sake of it. I honestly feel like no single story can ever be told the same way once it switches mediums. Thus, there is no single story; only a collection of adaptions that can't really be compared.
What about a comic strip Kevin? Do you think a novel could capture a scene from Calvin and Hobbes more economically than Watterson could in strip form?
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