Buster Brown

Nine panels follow Buster, his dog Tige, and an elderly grandfather through a comic misadventure involving a stamp collection scattered by wind. Outcault uses a consistent cast and flowing panel sequence—numbered 1–9—with speech balloons carrying the full comedic weight, culminating in Buster's mock-solemn "Resolved" monologue in the final panel, a recurring strip signature. Outcault had already invented the recurring-character Sunday page with *The Yellow Kid* (1895–98); *Buster Brown* launched in 1902 and ran for decades, spawning licensed shoes, clothing, and stage shows. These Sunday pages—full-color broadsheets sold as newspaper supplements—directly preceded and shaped the first comic books, which were initially reprints of exactly such strips collected between covers.