Buster Brown

Nine panels follow Buster, his dog Tige, and a companion on a shopping trip to the city with Mr. Dye, culminating in a misadventure with a department-store elevator — its sudden drop sending the party sprawling. Outcault closes, as always, with Buster's moral "Resolved," here a deadpan meditation on elevators versus umbrellas. The draftsmanship is confident and kinetic: fluid ink line, expressive figures, speech balloons neatly integrated into architectural interiors. Outcault had already invented the modern newspaper comic with *The Yellow Kid* (1895); *Buster Brown* (launched 1902) refined the formula — recurring cast, consistent visual voice, weekly punchline — giving publishers the template that would, within three decades, be reprinted as the first comic books.