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Buster Brown was created by by R.F. Outcault, who also created The Yellow Kid, often cited as the first recurring comic strip character (which he wasn't really, but that's a different blog post). The interesting thing about Buster Brown was that he was very heavily marketed and licensed. While some may think that marketing comic characters is a more recent development, the New York Herald company and later the Hearst newspapers pushed out a ton of licensed products, many of which are featured in this particular strip. Buster Brown is apparently receiving all of his licensed products as Christmas presents, though given his usual antics I don't think he really deserves them. Buster's dog Tige appeared on just as many products as he did, and just three years after the strip's debut the cartoonist is obviously aware of the ridiculous amount of licensing that was going on.