Jim Franklin (artist)
Encyclopedia
Armadillo World Headquarters
The Armadillo World Headquarters was the premier music hall and entertainment center in Austin, Texas, United States from 1970 to 1980.-History:...
, a former Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
music hall.
Franklin was born in Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. Returning to Texas, he teamed with musicians and artists to open a psychedelic music hall in Austin, called the Vulcan Gas Company
Vulcan Gas Company
The Vulcan Gas Company was the first successful psychedelic music venue in Austin, Texas. The Vulcan opened its doors at 316 Congress Avenue in the fall of 1967, and closed in the summer of 1970. Houston White, Gary Maxwell, Don Hyde, and Sandy Lockett started the Vulcan...
. Franklin lived in the club and was its primary poster artist for bands such as Shiva's Headband
Shiva's Headband
Shiva’s Headband, an early Texas psychedelic rock band, formed in Austin in 1967. The group was the house band at the Vulcan Gas Company, a late 1960s Austin nightclub. The band is credited with a significant role in the founding of the Armadillo World Headquarters. The bands first royalty check...
, 13th Floor Elevators
13th Floor Elevators
The 13th Floor Elevators were an American rock band from Austin, Texas formed by guitarist and vocalist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland, which existed from 1965 to 1969...
, Conqueroo, and Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
. At the Vulcan, Franklin and Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He is the creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Wonder Wart-Hog, Philbert Desanex, Not Quite Dead, and the cover art to The Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street.He graduated from Lamar High...
worked together for the first time.
Franklin began drawing armadillos in 1968 and it became a symbol of the hippie counterculture movement in Texas. He used this armadillo motif when creating the album art for Shiva's Headband
Shiva's Headband
Shiva’s Headband, an early Texas psychedelic rock band, formed in Austin in 1967. The group was the house band at the Vulcan Gas Company, a late 1960s Austin nightclub. The band is credited with a significant role in the founding of the Armadillo World Headquarters. The bands first royalty check...
's first record, Take Me to the Mountains and poster art for the Armadillo World Headquarters
Armadillo World Headquarters
The Armadillo World Headquarters was the premier music hall and entertainment center in Austin, Texas, United States from 1970 to 1980.-History:...
. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen is an American country rock band founded in 1967. Core members included founder George Frayne, John Tichy, Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen, Andy Stein, Paul "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow, Lance Dickerson, and Bobby Black....
live recording, Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas
Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas
Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas is the fourth album by the country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. It was recorded live at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, and features cover art of armadillos by Jim Franklin. Unlike many live albums, it is mostly new...
features Franklin's armadillo art, as does the Freddie King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
albums, Texas Cannonball and Woman Across the River. Franklin's surrealistic armadillos and other art often appeared on the cover of Austin's underground newspaper, The Rag
The Rag
The Rag was an underground paper published in Austin, Texas from 1966-1977. The sixth member of the Underground Press Syndicate, The Rag was one of the most influential of the early underground papers, known for its unique blend of radical politics, alternative culture and humor.- Early history...
.
Franklin also wrote Underground comix
Underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence...
and created Armadillo Comics. Franklin's armadillo paintings earned him the nickname, the "Michelangelo of armadillo art."
Many of Franklin's paintings and posters are signed with the initials, JFKLN. He continues to paint and is often seen on opening nights at the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture
South Austin Museum of Popular Culture
The South Austin Museum of Popular Culture is a Texas 501 nonprofit organisation dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting art and memorabilia that reflect Austin's eclectic contributions to popular culture worldwide....
.
External links
- South Austin Museum of Popular Culture
- Photos of Franklin at the Ritz, 1975
- Jim Franklin on Rag Radio, interviewed by Thorne DreyerThorne Webb DreyerThorne Webb Dreyer is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements...
, April 20, 2010