Design and Art Australia Online

cartoonist and comic-book artist, was born in Sydney on 21 May 1974. In 1992-96 she was a Bachelor of Visual Arts student at the ANU Canberra School of Art majoring in painting. Her first cartoons appeared in 1994 in the self-published comic Wilnot and in Smell My Finger, a comedy newspaper produced at the Australian National University [ANU]. In 1994 she co-edited and published Fruity Murmurs, a collection of comics by Canberra women, with Kirrily Schell. Between 1994 and 1997 her cartoons appeared in a wide range of alternative comix, including Black Light Angels (Sydney), Manky (Canberra), Cruel World (Sydney), DIY Feminism (Sydney, ed. Kathy Bail), Tango 1 & 2 (Melbourne comic anthologies on the theme of romance), Nice (Melbourne), Sticky Date (Canberra), Sick Puppy (Sydney), Ink (Canberra), Bump & Snore (Canberra), Gar Gah Gag (Sydney), Woroni (ANU student newspaper), Cumquat (Melbourne), Wilnot 2-6 (her self-published comic), Fruity Mumurs 2 (Canberra; published by women ANU students) and Voiceworks (Melbourne magazine).

In 1998 Ord had cartoons in May and August HQ, published Wilnot 7, exhibited her original drawings for comics in the 14th International Exhibition of Drawings in Croatia (on the theme of comics), produced Pantry, an anthology of about 40 Australian comic artists, and contributed 'separate wavelengths’ to the website One.

Her work was on the digitarts site (no longer in operation) along with other 'Ladies of the black ink’ – Amber Carvan, Nicola Hardy, Fiona Katauskas, Indira Neville (NZ) and Schell – and the sick puppy comix site (also no longer in operation). Early in 1999 she was included in a cartoon exhibition at Spiral Arm, Canberra, along with Horacek & other Canberra cartoonists (mostly non-mainstream men). Later that year she moved to Melbourne, where she works as a customer service officer for Device Technologies Australia. Her cartoons appeared in the Melbourne underground comix Pure Evil and Milkbar (which also features articles and reviews) and she self-published a comic, The Side of the Road. From October 1999 she occasionally had typically abrasive cartoons published in Orbit, the internet supplement in the Weekend Australian. They usually involved gruesome puns and word play, e.g., 'Not only was her smile contagious, it was incredibly itchy as well’, showing an unstable-looking girl grinning at a boy scratching at replicas of her smile dotted pimple-like over his face. In October 2000, however, Amber Cavan and Richard Vogt’s website stated:

“Mandy Ord's cartoons have mysteriously disappeared from ORBIT in The Weekend Australian much to the chagrin of myself and other fans. Some other person is doing the cartoon spot now and they really are quite bad! Come back Mandy! When in Melbourne Richard picked up a couple of copies of her latest mini comic, SIDE OF THE ROAD.”

In correspondence with Kerr in 1999 (Joan Kerr Archives, National Library of Australia) Ord wrote that she planned to have work in Top Shelf (USA), publish Wilnot 8 and produce an 'SPX’ catalogue for the small press expo in 2000. Regarding her work, she said:

“I draw comics to tell a story, and for me the best way to tell a story is through words and images combined. Out of this combination, in terms of visual and textual references is born an accessible unrestricted medium that seems to have almost no boundaries in regards to subject matter.

“Also, the nature of comics means that it isn’t too difficult to reproduce my own work via a photocopier. Using this method of reproduction means that I can distribute comics widely, through the mail and via any small press friendly retail outlets. This puts me in contact with other comic artists, out of which is born collaboration and anthologies which are a good way of exposing the work of the local comic talent.

“Comics excite me visually and I love [the fact] that humour, tragedy, real life and fantasy have endless combinations and ways of being explored.”

Participated in Silent Army, Express Media, Fitzroy Vic, 2002 (“20 of Australias young comic book veterans together for the first time”: Bicycle, Blanden, Brown, Carvan, Conn, Cure, Danko, Dodds, Fikaris, Greenberg, Mackay, Mangan, Mrongovius, O’Donnell, Ord, Pox, Savieri, Schell, Smith, Taylor).