The Comic Book

The most striking thing I noticed originally in relation to Comic Books as opposed to Comic Strips was the aspect of more complex story telling in Comic Books. That may be due to the intended audience or the longevity a book versus a strip can provide, however I believe there is an aspect of many variables. The more intricate characters, which is also reflected in the art style, where the strip had more simple characters and scenery overall, the comic book has the potential to be much more complex visually. This may be due to the need for a deeper suspension of disbelief. Having the reader enter into an entire world, instead of having a smaller glimpse into our own, or a simplified version of a fantasy. A comic book brings to life an entire universe, an alternate world to our own. The characters are generally larger than life, instead of an imaginative young boy, we have secret agents, or enhanced human heroes, needing the realism in the art to make them more believable in general, rather than  relatable.
The comic book also posses an aspect of optimism that comic strips often lack. The comic books intention is to present to us a better, safer, more hopeful version of our reality, where a rugged criminal having acid poured over him can become, over night, a hero dedicated to justice and the good of the people. When in reality he likely would have died a quite painful death, he's instead reborn as a hero, a man who can help and make a difference.