Incidents in the Life of Buster Brown

R. F. Outcault’s beloved creation Buster Brown stepped from the pages of the Sunday comics into a long-running advertising campaign for the Brown Shoe Company, with this single 1904 comic serving as the character’s promotional debut. Outcault, already famous for The Yellow Kid, wrote and drew this inaugural issue, which introduced Buster’s mischievous adventures and his dog Tige to a new audience. Though only one comic was produced, it launched a merchandising empire that kept Buster Brown a familiar face in American popular culture for over a century.