My favorite staff member: Joe Swarctz

Because I was acting in plays all the time, I was down at the arts campus late at night. Usually, I would run into custodian Joe Swarctz in the theater or in the film building. He is a children’s comic book artist, which I thought was the coolest thing. On Instagram, some of his comic books can be found at @echocitybooks. Some of his published books can also be found at the local bookstore; however, it is hard to get a lot of copies printed. I know the school gives him some supplies so that he can continue doing what he does. I always found it really inspiring that he was illustrating and doing everything with markers—it seemed like an old-fashioned approach to have to go to an office to put everything together. At one point I was interested in animation, so I would talk to him about cartoons and his style of drawing. I feel like he is a good influence on the students at the arts campus, and the College should definitely keep him down there.—Henry Ficcadenti ’21