In the beginning was The Vulcan Gas Company. Opened on October 27, 1967, it was Texas’ original counter culture dance hall and the first major patron of poster art. The Vulcan was the brainchild of Houston White, Gary Scanlon, and Don Hyde. For a year or so, as the “Electric Grandmother,” White and Scanlon had been organizing concerts that featured local and psychedelic pioneers the 13th Floor Elevators and Conqueroo, and from these first shows have survived several posters and handbills. It was for The Vulcan itself, however, that Austin’s most spectacular early posters were created. Though considerably larger than their San Francisco counterparts, Vulcan posters were often rendered in the psychedelic style popularized by Bay area artists like Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, and Victor Moscoso. Typically each of these 23x29 inch posters advertised two or three events with free-form lettering and several bright split-fountain colors. Achieving a stunning overall effect was more important than using a specific image on any one particular piece. At least 36 posters, 58 handbills, and two postcards were created during this era – the vast majority by either Gilbert Shelton or Jim Franklin (JFKLN).

Shelton is generally regarded as Austin’s first modern poster artist because of his extensive work with The Vulcan, including the logo and the grand opening poster. Best known today as the creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Wonder Wart-Hog, and Fat Freddy’s Cat, in the early Sixties Shelton was an editor of the University of Texas student humor magazine, the “Texas Ranger”. At the “Ranger”, he met Tony Bell and Lieuen Adkins, both of whom collaborated with him over the years on assorted posters and comic strips. In 1968, after creating a couple dozen colorful posters and handbills, and producing an underground comic entitled “Feds and Heads,” Shelton followed Austin adventurers like Chet Helms, Janis Joplin, Travis Rivers (“The Oracle”, Big Brother and the Holding Company), Bob Simmons (KSAN, Soundproof), Powell St. John (Mother Earth), and Jaxon to San Francisco. It was there in 1969, with Jaxon, Dave Moriaty, and Fred Todd, that Shelton founded the Rip Off Press.

Beyond his association with the Rip Off Press, Jack Jackson, a.k.a. Jaxon, was a major contributor to the counter culture movement in both Austin and San Francisco. Also an editor at the “Ranger”, and a talented cartoonist, Jaxon authored in 1964, with help from Lieuen Adkins, what is regarded by many as the first underground comic. Printed in the basement of the Texas State Capitol Building and entitled “God Nose,” a takeoff on "The Austin Iconoclast" strip “The Adventures of J(esus)” by Foolbert Sturgeon/Frank Stack, it sold briskly on the street for 50 cents a copy. Jaxon moved west in July of 1966 and was recruited by Chet Helms in early ’67 to set up a poster distribution system for the Family Dog. The phenomenal popularity of San Francisco posters and Jaxon’s business acumen helped finance the Avalon Ballroom concert operation for a while; but disenchanted by the glut of derivative posters flooding the market, Jaxon left the operation after 18 months or so.