Buster Brown the comic strip, first appeared in color in 1902. Tired of the legal difficulties and looking for new avenues, Outcault left the Journal in 1901 and created for the New York Herald a forgotten strip called 'Poor Li'l Mose' before finally creating the eternally famous 'Buster Brown'. Quite a bit of experimentation is required to get proper colors and when an engraver for the World wanted to try a new yellow he chose to spot it in the coming Sunday's paper on the 'kid's'įrock, and the kid became known as 'the Yellow Kid'. In 1895 at the same time that Outcault's first panels were being published, the newspapers were experimenting with four color inks. Outcault's The Yellow Kid was enormously popular in America at the turn of the century. The Yellow Kid was a bald, grinning youngster who satirized current events.įigure 2.-Outcault usually drew Buster with a wide-brimmed sailor hat, red tunic suit and bloomer knickers, short red socks, and strap shoes. Hearst acquired the New York Journal, his second newspaper, in 1895 and one of his first moves was to lure artist Richard Felton Outcault, creator of 'The Yellow Kid' comic, away from Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The 'Little Bears' were charming, playful little illustrations that appeared only in the Examiner. Over a century ago, the San Francisco Examiner, where Hearst began his career, published what are possibly the first comic characters to regularly appear in a newspaper. The origins of the newspaper comic strip itself can be directly traced to William Randolph Hearst and his fondness for this original American art form. In 1902 Cupples and Leon was founded, from this point they would grow to be the biggest comic book publisher in the first three decades of the 20th century. The earliestĬomic publishers were the newspapers that published the original 'funnies' The New York Journal and The Herald were two of these early publishers. The Katzenjammer Kids and Buster Brown were a few of the earliest. Who would plagiarize the strip for the Katzenjammer Kids.Ĭomics in America started as reprints of the Sunday 'funnies'. This strip had a direct influence on Rudolph Dirks

The comics as we known them today date to the 1860s and some of the first popular cartoon characters were kids-primarily boys.Ĭartoons date to Wilhelm Busch's 'Max und Moritz' which was introduced in German The first carttons date from the 18th century and were political in nature. The cartoon in has an interesting history. Curiously Mary Jane gave her name to the strap shoes, although both Buster and Mary Jane wore them. Buster gave his name to his trade-mark bangs, collar, and suit. Buster's girl friend was Mary Jane which became the American term for strap shoes even though Buster also wore them. Buster Brown shoes was the jost enduring. Because of his charateristic clothing, his include a range of clothing items. He was also used to market a wide range of clothing. Buster was also made into the subject of popular films.

He was normally the well dressed younger boy with friends that were rougher and not as well dressed. His antics while sometimes naughty were never meam-spirited and always ended with a little motal homily to have a moral influence on the youthful readers of the Sundau comics. He was often accompanied by his sister, Mary Jane, as well as his faithful bulldog-Tige. Buster was a charmingly mischievous boy, always carefully dressed and with nangs and long blond hair. He was also the subject of popular films. Outcault who had earlier created the Yellow Kid. He was an emensly popular cartoon chracter created by R.F. This illustrator has dressed him in a fancy Little Lord Fauntleroy suit.Īlthough now known mostly as a coroprate symbol for a shoe company, Buster Brown was the best known boy character in 20th-Century America. Boys clothing: American literary characters: Buster BrownĬostumes of American Literary Characters: Buster Brownįigure 1.-Buster Brown usually wore a yellow or red Buster Brown tunic suit.

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