Dave Ortega

Dave Ortega
Born
El Paso, Texas, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
AreaComics artist
Notable works
  • Abuela y Los Dead Mexicans (2011)
  • Hacienda (2013)
  • Días de Consuelo (2015–2020; 2021)
CollaboratorsThe Miracle 5
Awards
daveortegadraws.com

Dave Ortega is an American comics artist whose work examines the human impact of the Mexican Revolution and Spanish colonization through family narratives.[1] The Best American Comics named his Abuela y Los Dead Mexicans (transl. Grandma and the Dead Mexicans) a notable comic.[2] He released Días de Consuelo (transl. Days of Consuelo), about his grandmother's life, in six self-published issues before Radiator Comics published it as a graphic novel.[1] Publishers Weekly praised it as "deeply personal and affecting."[3]

Ortega's work appears in several comics anthologies,[4] and is in the permanent collections of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.[5] In 2016, he created a life-size interactive installation for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston,[6] and in 2025, Ortega was named a Brother Thomas Fellow of The Boston Foundation.[5]

Early life and education

Ortega grew up in El Paso, Texas, where he played video games as a child.[1] He was not introduced to comics until he attended the University of Texas at El Paso.[1]

Career

Ortega read his first graphic novel, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, after college.[4] Ortega studied how Miller and Art Spiegelman used panel composition in their storytelling.[1]

Ortega moved to Boston in 2000 to pursue art and illustration.[7] He became part of Somerville's independent comics community and has exhibited with the collaborative group The Miracle 5.[6][8]

He has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts[6][8] and Brandeis University.[8] In 2024, he was a visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.[5]

Artistic style and influences

Ortega's work focuses on Mexican history and the Spanish colonization of the Americas to address ongoing cultural trauma: "It's not a closed loop of history. It's still an open wound."[1] For his research into Mexican history, Ortega has drawn on Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America, Frank McLynn's Villa and Zapata, and Friedrich Katz's The Life and Times of Pancho Villa.[4]

His work is characterized by an 8-panel grid and frantic pacing, conveying stress and elevated emotions through detailed facial expressions.[9] The Comics Journal described him as "some kind of narrative virtuoso," praising his clever comic book writing and complex narrative structures.[9] He produces his work using brushes and Micron pens for inking, then colors the drawings digitally.[7]

Ortega has cited George Herriman's Krazy Kat, Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy, and E. C. Segar's Popeye as inspirational works, as well as the artists Lynda Barry, Kate Beaton, Jordan Crane, Michael DeForge, Michel Fiffe, Simon Hanselmann, Jaime Hernandez, Noah Van Sciver, Dash Shaw, and Jillian Tamaki.[4][8]

Días de Consuelo

In fall 2015, Ortega self-published the first issue of Días de Consuelo, chronicling the life of his grandmother Consuelo Castañón Herrera, who was born in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution.[1][6][7][10] 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.[10] Ortega crafted the story from family lore and historical sources.[10]

The six-issue series concluded in 2020.[7] The complete work was published as a graphic novel in 2021.[3]

Exhibitions and installations

Ortega regularly exhibits at comics and art book fairs throughout North America, including the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, the Latino Comics Expo, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) and Mini-MICE, the NY Art Book Fair, the Small Press Expo, and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.[5][11][12][13]

In addition to his comics, Ortega creates wearable art. He participated in a collaborative silk-screening project at the NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1[13] 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.[14][15]

He has also created immersive experiences, including the interactive installation Comics: Frame by Frame at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston,[1][16] which featured movable black-and-white panels that visitors could rearrange to create narratives, with paper speech bubbles available to add dialogue.[1][16] Ortega appeared at the museum to collaborate with visitors.[16][4] The project explored how individuals and societies construct narratives from fragmented information, mirroring the challenges he faced documenting his grandmother's story.[1]

Awards

Publications

  • Abuela y los Dead Mexicans [Grandma and the Dead Mexicans]. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4507-8196-1.
  • Insurrectos [Insurgents]. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2012. OCLC 932127037.
  • Hacienda. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2013. OCLC 932066248.[9]
  • De Narvaez. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2013. OCLC 937780558.
  • School of the Americas. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2013. OCLC 937807079.
  • Zacatecas 1914 #1. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2013. OCLC 1140548735.
  • Zacatecas 1914 #2. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2013. OCLC 1140548790.
  • Battle of Juarez MCMXI. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2014. OCLC 937716735.
  • Dichos [Sayings] (in Spanish). Boston: Dave Ortega. 2014. OCLC 937817307.
  • De las Casas: Selections from "An Account, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies". Boston: Dave Ortega. 2015. OCLC 937695539.
  • Días de Fresnillo I [Days of Fresnillo I]. Somerville, Massachusetts: The Miracle Five Press. 2015. OCLC 961484976.
  • Días de Fresnillo II [Days of Fresnillo II]. Somerville, Massachusetts: The Miracle Five Press. 2016. OCLC 961484825.
  • Here, Knightly. Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art. 2016. OCLC 1091355273.
  • Días de Guerra III [Days of War III]. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2018. OCLC 1311415307.
  • River. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2019. OCLC 1267718042.[3]
  • Días de Adversidad [Days of Adversity]. Boston: Dave Ortega. 2020. OCLC 1311415402.
  • Días de Consuelo [Days of Consuelo]. Radiator Comics. 2021. ISBN 978-0-9963989-1-6.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j McQuaid, Cate (February 17, 2016). "Comics Artist Ortega Helps ICA Visitors Share Their Stories". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Mouly, Françoise; Abel, Jessica; Madden, Matt, eds. (2012). "Notable Comics from September 1, 2010, to August 31, 2011". The Best American Comics 2012. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-547-69112-1.
  3. ^ a b c d "Días de Consuelo". Publishers Weekly. March 1, 2025. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e Sutherland, Amy (February 7, 2016). "Dave Ortega: Graphic Novelist Absorbs Books". The Boston Globe. p. N.11. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Seventeen Greater Boston Artists Honored as 2025 Brother Thomas Fellows". The Boston Foundation. September 25, 2025. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d Shankar, Amulya (August 12, 2016). "Somerville Artist Dave Ortega Embodies the Comic Con Spirit". WGBH. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d Cook, Greg (July 23, 2020). "In 'Dias de Consuelo,' Dave Ortega Recounts His Grandmother's Immigration Story". Wonderland. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d "Dave Ortega, February 2015 Artist of the Month". Somerville Arts Council. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c Casey, RJ (March 19, 2025). "Arrivals and Departures – March 2025". The Comics Journal. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  10. ^ a b c Seven, John (November 28, 2017). "Review: Dave Ortega Puts Family First in 'Dias de Consuelo'". The Comics Beat. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  11. ^ MacLaughlin, Nina (August 19, 2021). "A Comics Expo, a New Book on Looking with Black Artists, and Poetry Imagining Robert Burns in Jamaica". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  12. ^ MacLaughlin, Nina (October 13, 2022). "A New Collection of Poetry, a Return of the Comics Expo, and a Literary Festival in Maine". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  13. ^ a b Cotter, Holland (October 2, 2009). "All the Books You'll Never Catch on a Kindle". The New York Times. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  14. ^ Muther, Christopher (January 29, 2009). "For These Artists, T-Shirts Are Their Canvas". The Boston Globe. p. G.21. Archived from the original on February 3, 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  15. ^ Maxwell, Nisha (January 9, 2009). "Beyond the Fluff & Fold". Weekly Dig. p. 19. Retrieved October 10, 2025.
  16. ^ a b c Pak, Sen Man (February 23, 2016). "Comic Artist Dave Ortega Encourages Audience Participation in New ICA Installation". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  17. ^ "Comics and Coffee – Dave Ortega". University of Nebraska Omaha Events. University of Nebraska Omaha. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
  18. ^ "Collective Futures Fund Announces Inaugural Recipients". The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. September 1, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
  19. ^ "Announcing the Collective Futures Fund 2021 Grantees". Boston Art Review. 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
  20. ^ "Dave Ortega". School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on July 24, 2024. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
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