"This was the only poster that I did for the Grateful Dead. It was kind of the luck of the draw as to who got which poster. And I did a lot of posters for the Doors; I did a lot of posters for the Brother and Quicksilver; but this is the only poster I did for the Grateful Dead, and it's titled "Satanic Santa." Chet Helms said that he wanted me to do a Satanic Santa, so I came up with this." -Victor Moscoso
The 1st printing of the handbill mirrors the red, green and white of the poster and measures 8 1/2" x 11". It was printed before the concert.
The 1st printing A (see FD040-A) is a variant of the original, identified by its very pale red. It also measures 8 1/2" x 11".
The 1st printing B handbill was inserted in Mojo Navigator magazine, thus bearing on its reverse text from the subsequent page of the magazine. This variant displays the colors of the 1st printing. It was printed before the concert and measures 8 1/2" x 11".
Born in Spain, Victor Moscoso was the first of the rock poster artists with serious academic training and experience. At the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, Moscoso saw rock posters and decided that he could "make some money doing posters for those guys." In 1966, he began designing posters for the Avalon Ballroom; and under his own imprint, Neon Rose, a series for the Matrix, a San Francisco nightclub. Moscoso's style is most notable for its visual intensity, which was obtained by manipulating form and color to create optical effects. He used clashing, vibrating colors and deliberately illegible psychedelic lettering to demand attention.