Buster Brown — 1904-07-10

R. F. Outcault's Buster Brown ran in the *New York Herald* beginning in 1902, making it one of the earliest recurring-character Sunday pages — a direct ancestor of the comic book. This strip follows the mischievous, sailor-suited Buster and his bull terrier Tige as Buster chases a goose onto a rooftop, tumbles down a chimney, and erupts from the fireplace into his Papa's Aunt Maria's parlor, terrifying her mid-conversation about ghosts. A large crow escapes with her; chaos follows. Each strip opens with Buster's moral 'resolution,' invariably contradicted by the action. Outcault pioneered the speech balloon and the sequential panel grid here, visual conventions still governing comics worldwide.