Buster Brown

Richard Outcault's *Buster Brown* ran in the *New York Herald* beginning in 1902, a Sunday page built around a mischievous, sailor-suited boy, his dog Tige, and the formal 'Resolved' moral that closes each strip — always undercut by the chaos preceding it. This page shows Buster and Tige digging a hole beneath a garden bench, luring unsuspecting adults — including Aunt Polly and a pompous Professor — to collapse into it during a lawn party. Outcault drew in crisp pen line with confident crowd staging across a four-row grid, speech balloons nested neatly into action. Having already created the Yellow Kid, Outcault understood the recurring character as franchise. These Sunday pages — their panels, balloons, and weekly rhythm — are the direct structural ancestors of the comic book itself.