Joost Swarte

In October, I fulfilled a life long dream when I was lucky enough to meet and speak with Dutch cartoonist/graphic designer, Joost Swarte, at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD. I imagine he's best known for coining the term ligne claire or clear line style of drawing. I never got to meet my cartoonist hero, Tintin's Herge, so this was pretty special to me. Joost was participating in a panel discussion on Herge's work, so that was pretty cool too. After the session, I asked Joost to sign a couple books and we talked about the new Musee Herge that will be opening in March, 2009 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. From photos I've found online, it looks awesome. During the panel discussion, Joost briefly mentioned that he had visited Herge in his studio and I wished I had followed up on that. Anyway, he drew his character Jopo de Pojo and a modest self-portrait!