JFKLN
**For all photo galleries below, just click to enlarge! Then, to scroll through the images, just use the left and right arrow keys!
Jim Franklin just turned 80 years young on December 30th, 2023
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Jim paints murals as well as illustrates concert posters, handbills, special event posters and music album artwork (including a swimming pool!).
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See the videos below from “A Poem is a Naked Person” and you’ll see what I mean. Jim always has an opinion about everything.
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Jim was the official Master of Ceremonies at the Armadillo World Headquarters (see photo to the left).
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Jim co-owned the Ritz Theatre on 6th Street for 18 months.
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Jim regularly contributed to The Rag and other underground zines and comics throughout his career.
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Jim was the lead in his retro-fifties rock band, Ramon Ramon and the Four Daddyo’s!
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Jim has single-handedly made the Armadillo the symbol for the Austin counterculture.
Poster artist, painter, Master of Ceremonies, Armadillo aficionado, philosopher, club manager and pumpkin stomper, Jim Franklin (80 years young on Dec. 30th, 2023), has become almost as much of a local icon as the nine-banded creature he has done so much to popularize throughout his life’s artworks.
Per a “chance” meeting with a few beatnik guys from Austin, who promised a creative community and plenty of LSD, Franklin was lured to the capital city in ’65, helping open and operate Austin’s original psychedelic rock club, the Vulcan Gas Company.
Jim Franklin (along with Gilbert Shelton), helped pioneer a new visual style and vocabulary for the underground scene through music posters and handbills, continuing this tradition with a larger group of artists known as the Armadillo Art Squad at the famous Armadillo World Headquarters music and arts venue from 1970-80, displaying his surrealistic specialties in numerous modes.
Doubling as the official Master of Ceremonies for the venue, Jim wore an Armadillo helmet, antlers and black cape as he gave performances between music sets - described as a “lecture-scream-screetch-slip-slide stage routine. Although Jim has “Kept Austin Weird” for over 50 years, he continues to make it look natural…
Enjoy our online exhibit of this National Treasure, as we celebrate the continued art of JFKLN!
The official logo of the Armadillo World Headquarters, used on countless handbills, passes and t-shirts…
If any single image sang the loudest about the heart and soul of the place, it was Deep in the Heart of Texas, Jim Franklin’s giant portrait of the great Texas blues guitarist Freddie King, showing King wringing every ounce of sorrow and joy from his electric guitar as a nine-banded armadillo burst from the left side of his chest. If you ever set foot inside the Armadillo, that painting was likely the first thing you saw, and I’m confident it made an impression. It’s unforgettable, really, and for many of us, it’s a symbol of the magic of that place that will always burn brightly in our memories. - from Eddie Wilson’s book, “AWHQ”
“How often do you see dinosaurs walking around? Armadillos are surreal. Everything about Austin was surreal. When people saw my work, they’d go ‘Jim, that’s weird.’ Soon they were saying ‘Austin is weird.’”
Jim Franklin was the lead in an offbeat, artsy, fifties rock ’n roll band called Ramon Ramon and the Four Daddyo’s. Jim is the face of the Armadillo in the poster above (surprise surprise).
Jim’s Album Cover artwork:
“If you covered up the whole armadillo except the tail, you’d think you were looking at a snake. I like to think that that’s its’ natural defense - looking like a watermelon with a snake under it. Now, who the hell’s going to bother a watermelon with a snake under it?”
T-shirts portraying a nearsighted armadillo humping the state capitol dome eventually sold well on consignment for Jim.
“I’ve got a dog food eating cat, and a cat shit eating dog.”
“This is a paradise (talking about AWHQ). Look around. Food. Beer. Music. Lots of people…and an abundance of Armadillo mythology to keep you from feeling isolated.”
“I can’t quite forgive Walt Disney for what he did to mice. Turned them into little humanoids.”
“What really impressed me about horses was their rump- it’s the biggest muscle you can think of. ”
Jim’s Comics:
Jim’s Poster Art and comics:
(and misc.)
SOURCES:
Online Article: Spin: The Man Who Made Austin Weird
Online article: Austin Monthly: How Jim Franklin Turned the Armadillo Into Texas' Counterculture Mascot
Youtube Video: The South Austin Show with Artly Snuff featuring Jim Franklin
Youtube Video: Armadillo Rising: Austin’s Music Scene in the 1970’s
Documentary: A Poem is a Naked Person by Les Blank
Book: Armadillo World Headquarters by Eddie Wilson
Book: Austin Originals; Chats with Colorful Characters by Robyn Turner
Book: The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock by Jan Reid
Book: Celebrating the Rag; Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper, edited by Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree and Richard Croxdale
Instagram page (by yours truly, David Keller): KeepAustinATX
And with help from the AUSPOP community and Leea Mechling of course…
Jim’s Murals:
Photographs of or related to Jim:
“Armadillos and hippies - they’re somewhat alike. For one thing, they both seem to be things of the past. In this case, they are, definitely. There’s also that cornball connection of the underground that’s so obvious. They’re mistreated by the redneck majorities. Armadillos are either ignored or used as target practice. And they don’t smell too good.”
Videos of Jim:
George Jones sings “Take Me” while Jim Franklin paints Leon Russell’s pool and then takes us on a philosophical journey about the purposes and meaning of art in Les Blank’s documentary “A Poem is a Naked Person, “ filmed sometime between ‘72-’74.
Jim Franklin has a debate about achieving success with an over-eager couple of hot-head bandmates in this snippet from Les Blank’s “A Poem is a Naked Person,” filmed sometime between ‘72-’74.
Jim Franklin philosophizes about the evils of capitalism while his ball python enjoys a tasty meal in this snippet from Les Blank’s documentary, “A Poem is a Naked Person,” filmed sometime between ‘72-’74.
At the 709 Day party in 2022, Jim Franklin (of his own accord), takes the stage with Extreme Heat!