Jim Franklin

Franklin 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. Franklin lived in the club and was its primary poster artist for bands such as Shiva's Headband, 13th Floor Elevators, Conqueroo, and Canned Heat. At the Vulcan, Franklin and Gilbert Shelton worked together for the first time.

He is known for his work on The Rocketeer (1991), Three Amigos! (1986) and McBain (1991).

Franklin also wrote Underground comix and created Armadillo Comics. Franklin's armadillo paintings earned him the nickname, the "Michelangelo of armadillo art". In 1971, The New Yorker ran a feature story on Franklin and his work, entitled "Armadillo Man". A portion of Les Blank's long-unreleased 1974 documentary, A Poem Is A Naked Person, depicts Franklin's creation of a mural in Leon Russell's empty swimming pool.

Franklin began drawing armadillos in 1968 and they became a symbol of the hippie counterculture movement in Texas. He used this armadillo motif when creating the album art for Shiva's Headband's first record, Take Me to the Mountains and poster art for the Armadillo World Headquarters. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen's live recording, Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas, features Franklin's armadillo art, as do the Freddie King albums, Texas Cannonball and Woman Across the River.

Jim Franklin was born on May 16, 1948 in Lovington, New Mexico, USA as Jim Marshall Franklin.

Jim Franklin (born 1943 in Galveston, Texas) is an artist, illustrator, and underground cartoonist best known for his poster art created for the Armadillo World Headquarters, a former Austin, Texas, music hall. He is also known for his detailed, surrealistic illustrations of armadillos.