Jonny Hannah

Jonny Hannah is a freelance illustrator whose work draws on urban folklore, hand-drawn lettering, music, myth, publishing, print and the make-believe world of Darktown.

Jonny has worked for a variety of clients including Penguin Books, The New York Times and The Folio Society. His many passions include the music of Hank Williams, hand-drawn lettering and the films of Jacques Tati. He is also obsessed with folk and folklore, not the folk of deep, dark forests, dragons, knights and maidens, but what he calls urban folklore: the stuff that comes from the concrete ground up.

The Hexham Heads, the songs of Alex Glasgow and scrimshaw are among the many folkloric happenings that feed into his work. In 2019, he was commissioned to create Northumberland Folk, a large-scale project exploring the length and breadth of that fine county.

Northumberland Folk resulted in four exhibitions, featuring quotes from Cheviot Charlie, an homage to legendary Northumbrian pipe player Billy Pigg, and a doff of the cap to suffragette Emily Davison.

Then came Shipbuilders & Fisherfolk, a project about the fair town of Hartlepool, where Jonny became equally immersed in the history and current happenings of Codheads, West Dockers and all. This time he drew, painted and printed the likes of Captain Cutlass, Fish Annie and the Seacoal Warrior.

Jonny has illustrated, written and assembled various books, including Greetings from Darktown, Fast Cars & Ukuleles, and a variety of publications for St Jude’s, whose fine back catalogue comes under the heading of Random Spectacular. Songs from the Mermaid Café Jukebox was a lavish CD box set, while Darktown Chartbusters was an audio cassette of equally varied musical treats.

Jonny also plays in a top beat combo, The Postmen, delivering urban folk anthems with council estate choruses about the pandemic, the existential uncertainty of life and the Elephant Rock. So far they have released two records: Vagabond Energy Sweets, their 12-inch EP, followed by Bestiary, a single featuring one of their anthems, Metal Fly.

He has also worked with punk rock legend Richard Jobson, illustrating his band biography, The Story of the Skids, and more recently Richard’s collection of stories from his imaginary bar, The Alabama Song, all set in Berlin.

All this comes from Jonny’s make-believe place, Darktown: a peninsula just off the Sea of Possibilities, a hinterland of unpopular-popular-culture with many a story to tell.

Slim Gaillard runs a glorious second-hand shop there called Mc Vouty’s, while Jacques Tourneur owns the local cinema. There’s the Black Shuck Bookshop, specialising in volumes on folklore, and Vicky Page mends shoes, even if they aren’t red. Jacques Brel sells old records and makes a great cup of coffee too.

After work, they all congregate at The Mermaid Café, where they buy each other bottles of wine and smash their empty glasses down. You can get there down the Lost Highway, but be careful it isn’t a one-way ticket…

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