Dave Ortega

Dave Ortega is an American comics artist whose work examines the human impact of the Mexican Revolution and Spanish colonization through family narratives. The Best American Comics named his Abuela y Los Dead Mexicans a notable comic. He released Días de Consuelo , about his grandmother's life, in six self-published issues before Radiator Comics published it as a graphic novel.

Ortega's work appears in several comics anthologies, and is in the permanent collections of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. In 2016, he created a life-size interactive installation for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, He became part of Somerville's independent comics community and has exhibited with the collaborative group The Miracle 5. and Brandeis University. The Comics Journal described him as "some kind of narrative virtuoso," praising his clever comic book writing and complex narrative structures. The work incorporates historical figures including Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and President Venustiano Carranza, showing how the revolution affected daily life while focusing on women's experiences rather than battlefield action. and exhibited in the group show "Beyond the Fluff & Fold: Contemporary Artists & the T-Shirt" at The Art Institute of Boston, displaying work from his "Tees from the Future" series featuring characters from his comics.

He has also created immersive experiences, including the interactive installation Comics: Frame by Frame at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, which featured movable black-and-white panels that visitors could rearrange to create narratives, with paper speech bubbles available to add dialogue. 2021 – Grant from Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts 2023 – Días de Consuelo an official selection in the Book Series category for the Society of Illustrators Illustration 65 Annual 2025 – Named a Brother Thomas Fellow of The Boston Foundation

Publications