There's a technique/style/language of a single Sunday page that forces a break in the continuity of the story. That continuity is what I consider the essence of a comic book story - a page-to-page flow. This simply doesn't happen in Little Nemo.
Corto Maltese is a comic BOOK where the story was broken up in the presentation but NOT in the storytelling. Prince Valliant and Fraser of Africa are comic STRIPS with an artificial (and, to me, incredibly intrusive) stutter-step between every single page.
I don't believe that it's so much a cultural difference but simply a different medium. There's nothing wrong with either, but I happen to believe that they shouldn't be considered as identical. If you pick up a Blueberry album, it is next to impossible to tell how many pages Pilote chose to print in each issue and where they chose to break the installments. The story is told quite differently than a U.S. comic book, but it's a comic book nevertheless.
When you read Steve Canyon, you KNOW where each page broke and the story suffers from it. I couldn't make through the Scorchy Smith books due to the disruptions and repetitions. Comic STRIP readers accept those as given and do not see them as detriments. S'OK. I understand, but, as you say, paw, we have to agree to disagree. For me they are a different critter than comic books and graphic novels in which the story-telling is primary, not the page breaks. Viva la difference!
Peace, Jim (|:{>
