I've seen 'conte' refer to two things.  The first
being the storyboards (as you now sometimes see in
mass produced volumes for popular series and
movies) and the second being design sketches for
an episode or movie.  The design sketches exist so
the animators keep the look of the characters,
outfits, mecha, monsters, etc the same.

Most of these that I see are not the original
drawings but photocopies of them that may have
been used in production.  I have seen some of the
originals around though.

Hope this helps,
Keys