IN print the page is the unit you think in, 1 page or two page spreads, panels are part of the page building up to something bigger an eight or twenty or 100 page story.
In the web, for web comics the whole page metaphor falls apart, because you can replace one part or another of a page, because the page is a physical unit and on the screent he moitor is a physical unit , so for one time use you design screens, but how do you design a story for a cell phone, and a pc monitor, ultimately how do you design for print, cell and full screen?
I pulled apart a screen movie clip, making panels all the same size, they then become units that I can compose in, and then set up rules for combing based on screen size. By moving to the panel is the unit and not the page it will beinteresting to see what that does to storytelling.
that makes the easiest step to be just doing a slide show comic, add animation to it you get AOL Cybercomics and Haunted Man.