[1] Comic series and characters by Swarte include Katoen en Pinbal, Jopo de Pojo, Anton Makassar, Dr Ben Cine and Niet Zo, Maar Zo- Passi, Messa.

Swarte, born 24 December 1947 in Heemstede, studied industrial design in Eindhoven and started drawing comics in the late sixties.

[2] Swarte has produced a restored collection of almost all of his comics work (excluding the several hundred pages of the "Katoen en Pinbal" children's series), an English-language version of which will be released in late 2011 by Fantagraphics Books under the title Is That All There Is?.

The cartoonist and critic Scott McCloud, in Understanding Comics (1993), wrote that "Joost Swarte's crisp elegant lines and jazzy designs speak of cool sophistication and irony.

For his hometown Haarlem he designed a theatre building (De Toneelschuur) that was built in cooperation with Mecanoo Architects.