Buster Brown

R. F. Outcault's *Buster Brown* ran in the New York Herald beginning in 1902, making it one of the earliest recurring-character Sunday pages — the direct ancestor of the comic book. This full-page strip follows Buster and his bulldog Tige performing a vaudeville-style balancing act before a crowd of top-hatted gentlemen; the gag culminates in a drenching splash and a curtain-drop pratfall. Eight panels move left-to-right in tight sequence, speech balloons carrying all dialogue, with silhouetted crowd reactions providing comic counterpoint. The closing panel delivers Buster's signature "Resolved" moral — here a wry observation on laughing at others' misfortune. Outcault had already invented the form with *The Yellow Kid* (1895); here his line work is confident, his crowd scenes dense, and his panel-to-panel momentum wholly modern.