comic strip

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A usually humorous narrative sequence of cartoon panels.
• noun A series or serialization of such narrative sequences, usually featuring a regular cast of characters.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun a brief sequence of drawings, usually with characters drawn only sketchily, as in a cartoon, with dialog written in “balloons” over a character's head, and depicting a fictional and usually comical incident; -- also called a cartoon. Each comic strip contains typically from four to six panels arranged horizontally, but widely varying arrangements are published. In modern newspapers, weekly comic strips are in color, and daily strips are usually in black and white. In some, the story depicted may be serialized and continuous, carried over from day to day or week to week. Stories of adventure, drama, mystery or an otherwise non-comical nature depicted in the same style are also called comic strips.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun comics A series of illustrations, in sequence, often but not necessarily depicting something funny or political in nature.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a sequence of drawings telling a story in a newspaper or comic book