Buster Brown

Richard Outcault's Buster Brown ran in the *New York Herald* beginning in 1902, making this Sunday page one of the strip's middle-period installments. Six numbered panels follow Buster and his dog Tige as a tramp produces a magic wand, conjuring food and drink from thin air — oyster stew, lamb chops, champagne — before Buster douses him with a bucket of soapy water. Each strip closes with Buster's moral 'Resolved' speech, here urging readers against financial speculation and hoarding. Outcault, who had already invented the Yellow Kid, refined the Sunday page's visual grammar here: consistent panel grids, integrated speech balloons, and a recurring cast whose merchandising success pioneered licensed character branding across shoes, clothing, and toys nationwide.