In the cartoons I red there are small panels and some pages with larger panels when you want to have more details, so not 4 panel but 3 or 2 per page when you need it. And for the speaking at the bottom of the page I suggest you to add who is speaking, for example Commander: "Batte stations: Evasive manuvers!"
I think this way of presenting your series is the best, maybe use an overall larger page, I suggest no larger than 100 pixels, but you can even use a larger size for the height because it's easier for the viewer to scroll down than to scroll left-right