Cover Art – Mandy Ord

Archive, #24 Ugly, #24 Art & Comics / By
Mandy Ord

Mandy Ord is a Melbourne based illustrator and cartoonist with a long history of self publishing. Her book When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over published by Brow Books was longlisted for The Stella Prize in 2020 and shortlisted for the Small Press Book Network Book of the Year in 2021. Her first illustrated children’s book Chalk Boy, published by Allen & Unwin and written by Margaret Wild was shortlisted for Picture Book of the Year in 2019 by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. She teaches and presents lectures in schools, universities and at literature and arts festivals.

Mandy Ord’s front cover of The Suburban Review #24: UGLY is an up-close illustration of the lower half of a person’s face, looking up towards the top right corner of the frame. They are wearing a light blue surgical mask, covering their mouth but not their nose. We can see into the black void of their nostrils, with pores and nose hairs visible. Their skin is painted in greenish-yellow tones, the collar of a dark brown shirt visible at the bottom of the image. The person takes up most of the frame; the small glimpses of the background in the corners of the image are pitch black.
Mandy Ord’s back cover illustration for The Suburban Review #24: UGLY is another up-close illustration of the lower half of a person’s face, looking up towards the top right corner of the frame. They are wearing a dirty blue surgical mask, and it is a darker blue and more stained than the cover illustration, with ink splatters like the illustration has been sneezed on. The mask covers their mouth but not their nose. We can see once again into the black void of their nostrils. Their skin is painted this time in cooler pink, yellow and white tones, the collar of a grey shirt visible at the bottom of the image. The person takes up most of the frame; the small glimpses of the background in the corners of the image are pitch black.

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