Buster Brown — 1903-05-10

Eight panels follow young Buster Brown faking illness to torment the family doctor. Buster pleads sickness to his mother; she fetches the physician; Buster ambushes him with a hidden dog and general mayhem, sending the doctor airborne in panel four. The doctor prescribes rest and fresh air — Buster's closing monologue suggests revenge by siccing his bull terrier Tige on the doctor's bill-collecting visit. Richard F. Outcault drew Buster with crisp crosshatching and expressive silhouette figures, deploying speech balloons and sequenced panels with practiced fluency. Having already launched the modern Sunday comic page with The Yellow Kid (1895), Outcault here refined the recurring-character strip — stable cast, predictable mischief, punchline resolution — that would define newspaper comics and, eventually, the comic book format itself.