Buster Brown — 1904-08-07

Twelve panels follow the incorrigible Buster Brown as his mother prepares to sail for Europe, leaving him with Grandma — a plan Buster immediately subverts by stowing away aboard an American & European Steamship Line vessel, dog Tige at his heels. Outcault builds the gag through luggage-stuffing, a tearful carriage farewell, a dockside gangplank chase, and a shipboard resolution card Buster holds up for the captain. The strip's clean ink line, expressive figures, and speech balloons flowing naturally from characters' mouths show the Sunday-page grammar Outcault had been codifying since *The Yellow Kid* (1895) — recurring cast, sequential panel logic, punchline final frame. These weekly color pages, syndicated nationally, were the direct template from which the first comic *books* were assembled: reprinted newspaper strips, stapled and sold.