This graphic novel looks at every stage of that life, exploring Keith Haring’s early influences, the roots of his activism, and his close friendships with other artist contemporaries. It shows readers what it was like to be part of New York City’s vibrant downtown art scene in the 1980s―the nightclubs, art openings, the rise of hip-hop―and how world events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall; the escalation of the nuclear arms race; apartheid; and the dawn of the climate crisis played into his work. Packed with key cultural reference points as well as the artist’s own reflections, this graphic biography makes for compulsive, eyeopening reading.