Buster Brown

Richard Outcault's *Buster Brown* ran in the New York Herald beginning in 1902, making it one of the earliest recurring-character Sunday pages—a format that directly seeded the comic book. This strip follows Buster, his dog Tige, and a companion through a jungle setting (likely Hawaii, per the closing 'Resolved' monologue), across eight numbered panels. Outcault deploys the full grammar he helped invent: sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, and a signature closing text-box where Buster delivers a mock-solemn moral. The loose brushwork, palm-tree staging, and slapstick chase involving a monkey and Tige show Outcault's confident page design. The strip sold licensed merchandise on an unprecedented scale, demonstrating that a drawn character could become a brand decades before superheroes.