Not Just Art, Not Just Writing

You need both for an exceptional webcomic; one or the other won't cut it. If you can't pull one off well enough, there are options. The simplest is: go with what you can do while practicing the other; sketch galleries and short stories are common enough (I believe there's even one that squeaked onto my comics listing).

Staying with a webcomic, there are often partnerships between good artists and good writers, but there are pitfalls. Since the scripts & strips pass between two people, plenty of chances for bottlenecks crop up. Even worse, some partnerships fall apart leaving the comic unconcluded.

And if none of those work for you, there's a chance to discover that sprite or cut & paste comics aren't as terrible as they've been made out...if you make them right. Obviously the sprites need to be unique; giving Sonic the Hedgehog a paint job won't cut it. Even if your drawing skills are pretty bad, chances are you can make a passable image once or twice. If you make it that far, you've already beaten the curve, though you're still far from a quality product.

The real key is to vary expressions and positioning. It's way too obvious if the same frame is copied over and over, but if the characters undergo slight changes in between you'll have an easier time getting away with it. Match the facial features to the dialogue. Eyes can bug-out or squint; the mouth can open, close, gnashing of teeth; eyebrows raise; they're not especially taxing effects to produce.

Hands giving you a problem? a few well-placed props takes care of that. Pick up a clipboard with one hand: If you grabbed the edge only your thumb is showing, if you cradled it, all five fingers are hidden. The moral: as long as a character has reason to be holding something slightly bulky, the troublesome fingers can be hidden.

Making up for a lack of plot ideas is a bit harder. Retelling a classic story is workable--that's all Star Wars did. Obviously taking stories and gags from other webcomics is a bad idea. Parody is a great method, provided you can think up ways to twist the original. Keep in mind, "Originality is the art of hiding your sources." You don't need to be completely unique, just different enough. I really can't offer much help on the topic of writing. Of creative writing, the only form I can pull off are short stories--mostly description with extremely loose plot. I can however pass off the few tricks I've learned.

As always, improvement comes with practice. If you can't come up with topics of your own, writing contests & shared universes can be helpful--many will have guidelines to be followed. Once you've finished, leave it sit (some professional writers don't look at what they've written until a year has passed), proofreading and editing are more helpful when you don't remember the exact meanings you intended.