It features the world's largest collection of works by Wilhelm Busch,[1] as well as contemporary comic art, illustrations and drawings.

[3] The city of Hanover allows the use of the historic exhibition building free of charge, and also makes an annual sponsorship contribution.

In addition to the works by Busch, the museum owns an internationally significant collection of four centuries of satirical art, by artists including Honoré Daumier, James Gillray, Francisco de Goya, Thomas Theodor Heine, William Hogarth, Ronald Searle, Jean-Jacques Sempé, Tomi Ungerer, and A. Paul Weber.

The collection has grown significantly since around 2000, with new acquisitions including 700 caricatures of Napoleon, works by the Austrian caricaturist Erich Sokol, the estate of the draughtsman Volker Kriegel, and more recently that of Friedrich Karl Waechter.

Around 150 exhibitions have been put on since 1950, featuring artists such as Carl Barks, Walt Disney, Grandville, Gottfried Helnwein, Hergé, Winsor McCay and Roland Topor, in addition to those mentioned above.