Love “Weird” Austin? Thank the Armadillo Man.

An evocative new documentary about the artist Jim Franklin begins quietly, with a single reverent quotation: “It became obvious from the start that Franklin was the only person who should ever draw armadillos.” Stephen Harrigan, who wrote this in a Rolling Stone profile of Franklin in 1972, captured the legacy of the artist, countercultural icon, and personage often credited with helping make Austin “weird.” Indeed, the armored mammals drawn and painted by Franklin—whether starring on his copious posters for Armadillo World Headquarters, bursting from the chest of bluesman Freddie King, or cozying up to Lone Star beers in the company’s “Long Live Long Necks” advertisements—were Texas’s answer to the Campbell’s Soup Cans of Andy Warhol and the dancing figures of Keith Haring.

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