A fair number of users are still at 14.4 kilobaud or slower. If there is a notable delay in loading your strip, be sure that it's worth it. I find that 80k for a daily strip is about my tolerance level and that I'll spend time reading most anything under 20k. If you're going to have large pictures, make sure it's worth it. If it's over 100k, you've no excuse for anything other than clear lettering, sharp colour and clean lines.
Most people care more about the comic strip than the website.
Most people don't care about little animated gifs or java applets. I dislike those sort of things because they slow my computer down. You're better off putting in a nice biographies or links page. Remember that not everyone has javascript and not everyone has frames. I dislike it.