Comic Strip
A comic strip is a drawing or sequence of drawings that tells a story. Written and drawn by a cartoonist, such strips are published on a recurring basis (usually daily or weekly) in newspapers and on the Internet. In the UK and the rest of Europe they are also serialized in comic magazines, with a strip's story sometimes continuing over three pages or more. Comic strips have also appeared in US magazines such as Boys' Life.
Storytelling using pictures has existed at least since the ancient Egyptians, and examples exist in 19th Century Germany and England. American comic strip developed this format into the 20th century. It introduced such devices as the word balloon for speech, the hat flying off to indicate surprise, and specific typographical symbols to represent cursing. The first comic books were anthologies of newspaper comic strips.
As the name implies, comic strips can be humorous (for example, "gag-a-day" strips such as Blondie, Bringing Up Father and Pearls Before Swine). Starting circa 1930, comic strips began to include adventure stories. Buck Rogers, Tarzan and The Adventures of Tintin were some of the first. Soap-opera continuity strips such as Judge Parker and Mary Worth gained popularity in the 1940s. All are called, generically, "comic strips", though cartoonist Will Eisner has suggested that "sequential art" would be a better name for them.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip