The Buster Brown Index

Richard Felton Outcault.

       Richard Felton Outcault was born on January 14, 1863 and died on September 25, 1928. He was the American cartoonist who created the series The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, and he is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip.

       Richard Outcault introduced Buster Brown to the pages of the Herald on May 4, 1902, about a mischievous, well-to-do boy dressed in Little Lord Fauntleroy style, and his pit-bull terrier Tige. The strip and characters were more popular than the Yellow Kid, and Outcault licensed the name for a wide number of consumer products, such as children's shoes from the Brown Shoe Company. In 1904 he sold advertising licenses to 200 companies at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Journalist Roy McCardell reported in 1905 that Outcault earned $75,000 a year from merchandising and employed two secretaries and a lawyer. Read more...

Artifacts About the Buster Brown Cartoons:

1. Buster Brown and Tige at Dinner
2. Buster Brown Silent Films
3. The Buster Brown Musical Comedy
4. Buster Brown's History
5. Buster Brown's Elec. R. R.
6. Buster Brown's Paper Bike
7. Buster Brown's Paper Sled
8. Buster Brown Coloring Pages

       Above, an original Buster Brown Shoe commercial. Outcault traveled to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, selling licenses to up to 200 companies to use the Buster Brown characters to advertise their products. Buster Brown's association with shoes began with John Bush, a sales executive with the Brown Shoe Company; he persuaded his company to purchase rights to the Buster Brown name, and the brand was introduced to the public at the 1904 World's Fair.