This publication places the American artist KAWS in dialog with selected contemporary stances with a focus on the artistic autonomy of his characters, who unite characteristics of street, pop, commercial, and public art.

Comics are characterized by a universal language and exist in many cultures as an accessible way of telling stories graphically, in words and images. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ad Reinhardt, and Kerry James Marshall were fine artists who created comics in a near-classic vein. And even prior to the advent of photography and (animated) films, caricature, satire, and frame-by-frame narration represented an attractive way in which stories could be conveyed—transcending boundaries both national and otherwise, addressing all age groups and social strata. Starting in the 1960s, artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Keith Haring questioned the distinction between high and low art in a radical manner. Prominent contemporary stances of a similar bent range from KAWS and Joyce Pensato to Nicole Eisenman and on to Peter Saul.