No One's Home; Stay Steady; The Things that Comfort (set of 3)

Three prints, one morning in December

In late November 2015, a New York print publisher that had already issued KAWS's 'You Should Know I Know' print earlier that year announced a new portfolio from the artist: three silkscreens titled 'No One's Home,' 'Stay Steady' and 'The Things That Comfort.' The release was timed to the Miami art-fair week. Sets went on sale at 11 a.m. Eastern time on December 2, 2015, first come, first served, with sales handled in person in New York, at the publisher's gallery at 521 West 26th Street, and further requests taken by email.

The edition was 250 sets, and the prints were sold only together, never singly. Pricing was tiered. One later dealer listing describes the portfolio as having sold out quickly; we did not find the original retail price.

Each of the three images takes Snoopy's profile and remixes it in KAWS's established style. Contemporary coverage described the prints as featuring the artist's recurring Snoopy motif with bold colors and abstract patterns that recall his earlier work. Print specialists group them with KAWS's 'Outlines' prints, in which familiar characters such as Snoopy and Garfield appear in silhouette, filled with color, pattern and his off-kilter cartoon features, including the crossed-out eyes that have become his signature.

From rooftops to the auction room

KAWS is Brian Donnelly, born November 4, 1974, in Jersey City, New Jersey. As a teenager he invented the name KAWS because he liked the way the letters looked; the word means nothing. He painted it on the roof of a building he could see from his classroom window at St. Anthony High School, and went on to earn a fine arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

In the 1990s he worked as an animator by day and a graffiti writer by night, 'subvertising' billboards, bus shelters and phone booths, which he opened with a skeleton key. Many of his recurring characters date from that period. 'Companion,' a grayscale, clown-like figure based on Mickey Mouse, first appeared in 1999 as a vinyl toy with X-ed out eyes, made by a Japanese company.

Reworking cartoon icons has been central to his work from the start: 'The Kimpsons' remade 'The Simpsons,' and his toys, clothing collaborations and paintings borrowed from Sesame Street, SpongeBob and others. In April 2019 his 2005 painting 'The KAWS Album,' a riff on a Simpsons parody of the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' cover, sold at auction in Hong Kong for about $14.7 million, then a record for the artist. The painting has also drawn criticism: the comic artist who drew the Simpsons cover it is based on called it a traced interpretation of his work.

Why Snoopy

Snoopy first appeared in Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts strip on October 4, 1950, two days after the strip began, as one of its four original characters. He was not named until a strip that November, and he did not stand on his hind legs until 1956.

KAWS returned to the dog repeatedly. The 2015 portfolio arrived a month after 'The Peanuts Movie' opened in U.S. theaters on November 6, 2015. In April 2017 KAWS designed a Peanuts line of T-shirts, accessories and plush toys for a clothing retailer, part of a collaboration that began in 2016 with Sesame Street.

In the three prints, Snoopy appears as a silhouette: specialists describe the outline filled with KAWS's bold color, pattern and cartoon features rather than drawn as Schulz drew him.

How to identify a set

A complete set is three separate sheets on Saunders Waterford paper, each signed 'KAWS,' dated '15 and numbered from the edition of 250 in pencil; one recorded set was signed in different colored pencils on each sheet. Recorded examples carry the same number on all three sheets, such as 124/250, 126/250, 136/250 and 137/250. Fifty artist's proofs were also printed.

Two sheets are vertical and one horizontal. Published measurements vary slightly by source. One listing gives 'No One's Home' at 36 by 29 inches (91.4 by 73.7 cm), 'Stay Steady' at 29 1/4 by 33 1/2 inches (74.3 by 85 cm) and 'The Things That Comfort' at 36 by 30 inches (91.4 by 76.2 cm); another records 91.5 by 73.5, 74 by 85 and 91 by 76 cm. Image sizes vary, with the largest about 68 by 76 cm.

Because the set was sold only as a unit, a matched trio with the same edition number on all three sheets is the expected form. Single sheets do circulate separately in the market.

The set's market record

Sets began returning to auction within a year. Set 136/250 was offered at auction in Dallas on October 25, 2016, and did not sell. In Hong Kong, set 126/250 sold on June 5, 2020, for HK$562,500 against an estimate of HK$300,000 to HK$500,000.

In 2023 set 124/250 was offered at auction in New York with an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000; the result is not public. Set 137/250, framed, sold at auction in London for £24,130 against an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000.

On the retail market, a dealer was asking $59,000 for a complete set when we checked in October 2026. No sale of a set in U.S. dollars was stated on any page we could verify, so the London and Hong Kong results above are given in their original currencies.

The numbers

Medium

Screenprints in colors on Saunders Waterford paper, set of three

Dimensions (sheets)

No One's Home 36 x 29 in. (91.4 x 73.7 cm); Stay Steady 29 1/4 x 33 1/2 in. (74.3 x 85 cm); The Things That Comfort 36 x 30 in. (91.4 x 76.2 cm)

Edition

250 numbered sets plus 50 artist's proofs

Inscriptions

Signed KAWS, dated '15 and numbered in pencil on each sheet

Publisher

A New York print publisher, 2015

Catalogue raisonne

None stated in the sources checked

Current owners

Edition work; individual sets are in private hands

Timeline

1. Oct 4, 1950

   Snoopy first appears in Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts.

2. Nov 4, 1974

   Brian Donnelly, later KAWS, is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.

3. 1999

   KAWS's first vinyl toy, Companion, is produced in Japan.

4. Nov 6, 2015

   'The Peanuts Movie' opens in U.S. theaters.

5. Nov 29, 2015

   The three-print Snoopy portfolio is announced for release in Miami and New York.

6. Dec 2, 2015

   The portfolio goes on sale at 11 a.m., in an edition of 250 sets sold only as complete sets.

7. Oct 25, 2016

   Set 136/250 is offered at auction in Dallas and does not sell.

8. Apr 2017

   KAWS releases a Peanuts clothing and plush line with a global retailer.

9. Apr 1, 2019

   'The KAWS Album' sells in Hong Kong for about $14.7 million, a record for the artist at the time.

10. Jun 5, 2020

    Set 126/250 sells in Hong Kong for HK$562,500.

11. 2023

    Set 124/250 is offered at auction in New York with a $30,000 to $50,000 estimate.

12. Sep 16, 2025

    KAWS is named the first artist in residence at the retailer he has worked with since 2016.

The world in 2015

• Feb 1, 2015

  The New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in Super Bowl XLIX.

• Mar 6, 2015

  The Dawn probe becomes the first spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet, Ceres.

• May 20, 2015

  David Letterman hosts his last 'Late Show.'

• Jun 26, 2015

  The Supreme Court rules 5-4 that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

• Jul 20, 2015

  The United States and Cuba reopen embassies in each other's capitals after 54 years.

• Sep 22, 2015

  Pope Francis begins a visit to Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

• Nov 6, 2015

  'The Peanuts Movie' opens in U.S. theaters; it grosses $246 million worldwide.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, No One's Home; Stay Steady; The Things that Comfort (set of 3) is number 55 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (61 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The set was sold only as a trio on release day; no single prints were offered.
• KAWS chose his name because he liked how the letters looked. The word means nothing.
• He first painted 'KAWS' on a rooftop he could see from his high school classroom.
• The portfolio went on sale less than four weeks after 'The Peanuts Movie' opened.
• Snoopy did not get his name until more than a month after he first appeared in the strip.
• The painting that set KAWS's auction record in 2019 was called a traced interpretation of his work by the comic artist who drew the Simpsons cover it is based on.