http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book

A comic book or comicbook,also called comic magazine or simply comic, is a publication of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by brief descriptive prose and written narrative, usually dialog contained in word balloons emblematic of the comics art form. The first comic book appeared in the United States in 1933 and was a reprinting of earlier newspaper comic strips which had established many of the story-telling devices used in comics. The term comic book arose because the first comic book reprinted humor comic strips.