About the artist

Bets Ochoa is a cartoonist, printmaker, and freelance illustrator working out of Chicago, IL. Since moving from Tennessee in 2015, Bets has become involved in the Midwest’s indie comics community, participated in fests and anthologies throughout the US, and illustrated for Chicago establishments like the Chicago Reader.

In 2021, Bets and New York cartoonist Kelsey Short published their first project together, Fantasy Lewds, which gathered twelve artists into an erotic comic anthology zine based around the fantasy genre. Since then, Kelsey and Bets have gone on to co-edit two more anthologies with more artists, and found a small press under which to continue self-publication. Dark Spark Press seeks to give independent comic artists a platform to tell playful, sensual, and vulnerable stories in an increasingly sanitized and queer-unfriendly social climate.

Bets’ work swings between personal and fantastical. Drawing on her Mexican-American background, Bets has long been attracted to the ‘between space’ of internal and external worlds—what does it mean to not belong in one place or another, and to try to craft an identity in the gap between? Her genre work reflects this as well, focusing on themes of identity and personal transformation in both fantasy and apocalyptic settings.

For inquiries regarding projects, personal or professional, please use the form below.