Buster Brown — 1909-01-31

Seven panels follow young Buster and his dog Tige hiding inside a molasses barrel on a two-wheeled cart, gleefully taunting their uncle — until he tips the barrel and drenches them. The strip closes with Buster's signature *Resolved* moral, here a sly meditation on molasses, owls, and false wisdom. Outcault's linework is assured: thick blacks, expressive silhouettes, and speech balloons cleanly integrated into action. Buster Brown launched in the *New York Herald* in 1902, shortly after Outcault's own *Yellow Kid* had helped prove that recurring comic characters could anchor newspaper circulation. These Sunday pages — their panel grids, balloon lettering, and cliffhanger rhythm — directly shaped the anthology reprint comics of the 1930s that became the first true comic books.