Publisher: alchemical records Editor: Daniel Hill Art Director: Alex Alavi contents Writer: kimberly shires page 14..............local page 3........Alex Alavi artists + their music Featured Artists: (cont.) page 5....Ryan Wright Albino rhino alex alavi page 15.........Crooks The Bachelor And The Bad Actress Casanovela page 6.............Emma g and crows Crooks And Crows Emma g gabrielle zwi page 8....joan cooke page 16...............wake galen clark Harvey Nussbaum the ancient joan cooke page 10..............local mary celeste Robot Jurassic artists + their music page 19.................5x5 Ryan Wright Shea showcase Squid inc. page 12...............Mary wolfelt Wake the ancient celeste page 22...........Letter Yellowtieguy from the editor Alchemical Records ©2019 Alex Alavi Alex Alavi is a cartoonist and musician from the DC area. Born in a hospital that is now a condo, he was bound to have a sense of humor. He’s been drawing since childhood and playing guitar since about 12, with songwriting coming not long after. If you ask him, he’s quite good. If you ask anybody else -well, why would you? Last November, Alex combined his comics and music into a multimedia performance at The New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, MD.He performed original songs while comics that complemented the story of the songs were projected behind him. Nowadays you can catch him playing at various venues around DC, MD, and VA, namely Gypsy Sally’s, The New Deal Cafe, and Epicure Cafe. Alex has released a myriad of singles on Spotify, Apple, and all those music streaming places and plans to release a full album in the Spring of 2019. Homemade cover art for Alex’s frst two singles “Where Did You Eat Last Night?” & “We Are 2” occasionally asked questions Some questions Alex has been asked only once or twice, but he still thought were interesting anyway Q: Which came frst and which is more you get something from each? important to you: the comic book stuff or the music stuff? A: I do yeah. When I went to college I studied cartooning, and I think that really made me A: I don’t know if one’s more important than a better musician too. In cartooning you only the other. I’ve always liked comics since I was have so much space, you can’t say a whole little, it was how I started reading I think, and lot, and nobody wants to read a whole lot when I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist. And they’re reading a comic. If you have more than then when I was like 11 or 12 I also wanted one sentence in a balloon, no one’s gonna to be a musician. And I fgured I could do read it. So compression is a big thing. Nothing the musician stuff when I was young and specifc but just the idea of saying a lot in a do cartoons when I got older, but then it just simple way, I’m just trying to do that as much as kinda happened to mush together. So they’re I can. both equally important. Q: So as an analogy, do you think there are Q: In songs you have to compress a lot of hooks in comics? ideas into little hooks and metaphors and the like. I imagine there’s something like A: Yeah. I think funny faces is a hook. And big that in comics. What are the similarities/Do spaces of black, things like that. An excerpt from the comic music video for “I Want To Be Alone”. Don’t worry the meteor makes sense in the full thing. Well, at least more sense. See more of Alex’s art: alexthefunkalavi 350%2(%2/ ,@XNTS@MCSDWS !KDW!K@UH NQK@MCN ATRJHMF !BQNVCB@OSTQDRSGDLNLDMS "@QA@Q@CHROK@XR@ RXRSDLHBSQDMCNEG@SD ,D@UDGDQ@KNMD ,DSGDQOK@X !BNLLTMHSXF@SGDQRHMRTOONQS 7G@SZRFNHMF NMGDQD behind the art of Joan Cooke Joan Cooke has gone by many names. Today she goes by Joan Comics, and she was formerly known as “The Art Creature”. She is a self-employed freelance artist and graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design. Formerly a resident of Edgewater, MD, just south of Annapolis, Joan has often attributed her greatest infuence as Matt Groening of Simpsons fame, though anyone who has seen the scope of her work will realize that her talents are not at all limited to that particu- lar style. She has had a long-running collaborator with thermodynamics profes- sor, Dante Shepherd for their web comic, PhD Unknown. Joan has also provided cover art for writers including Gabriel Ricard, as well as musicians, including southern Maryland based recording artist, YellowTieGuy. Alchemical: Other than YellowTieGuy, what are some other local music acts that you’re into? Joan: I’m a big fan of Super City as well as Sam Cooper & The Sleepwalkers What was it like when you frst started designing with YellowTieGuy? I was so young and green when I frst made art for Danny [Hill]. We discussed the details while hanging out in the garage/ music studio. I had my sketchbook out, ready to quickly take down any ideas that occurred to us in the moment. We were bouncing ideas back and forth while also catching up about our lives and our creative endeavors. We have had a long friendship and love of fueling our creative outlets. At one point, both of us were starving artists holding on by the skin of our teeth. How did you come up with the idea for the logo? For the logo I wanted to design something that is simple and eye catching, yet communicates his brand in an instant. Danny is whimsical and silly and the swirling tie seemed to capture that, while the rest of the font references more classic comic book style fonts. The artwork you did for “Play On Words” is a lot more refned than the artwork you did for the original demo. By the time that we be- gan working on artwork for the second full-length album, we had evolved so much. The process for making the album art was more in depth, and there was a lot that needed to be incorporat- ed into the full album art design. Danny wanted a design that literally had children playing on the words, but also wanted to incorporate something more subtle for fans to fnd, which consisted of faintly hinting at the POW (Prison- ers of War) imagery. This not only tied in to Danny’s support of the troops visually, but also tied into his support of the troops with songs “War (Should I be So Sur- prised).” and “War (It’s You I’m Fighting For)”. By the time of this publication, Joan will already have appeared at Awe- some Con 2019, and will be attending and showing off her artwork at East Coast Comic Con (May 17-19) and Big Easy Con (June 1-2). You can support Joan through her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ joancomics You can fnd out more about YellowTieGuy at https://www. yellowtieguy.com Local Artists + Their Music The Bachelor And The Bad Actress (Anarchist Honky Tonk) GALEN CLARK I say “Kill a Billionaire” Cocoon The Ransom Note Kill a billionaire We are quite prepared Woven silk immune Kill a billionaire To kill this billionaire Slumber awakens you They’re killing you they’re killing me We’ve got an inch of rope Morning sings a tune It only seems fair For every life he’s broke Inside a cocoon Kill a billionaire Man this ain’t no joke Can’t build a gallows that high A chicken in every pot and a guillotine in every square Gonna tie him to the tail of his own private jet Kill a billionaire And soon he will be dangling in the sky Kill a billionaire Kill a billionaire Well I die every day ten thousand deaths By the invisible hands of some billionaire man ...OR TAX THEM APPROPRIATELY!!!!! Yeah he’s choking my neck Makes my mama want to cry She just hangs her head and says “All the billionaires must die!” Kill a billionaire, kill a billionaire Get him in your crosshairs And kill a billionaire Well when you seek revenge They say dig two graves Well that’s A-Ok Kill a billionaire Then kill another billionaire (it’s a 2 for 1 special folks) They’re killing you, they’re killing me It only seems fair Kill a billionaire Well now Quinton Tarantino took us half way there He said Kill Bill ROBOT JURASSIC SHEA Insane & Incognito Not From You Light a candle for the dead Happiness is a feeting thought Through the smoke they will speak Happiness is a rabbit eaten by a fox Feel the crooked hungry branches Happiness is a warm hug Reaching over me Happiness is an old addicting drug GALEN CLARK ALBINO RHINO Cocoon Week In Review Woven silk immune The things we’ve seen and what we’ve been through Slumber awakens you Are just about to crack the sky wide open blue Morning sings a tune The sun will shine, or the horsemen ride Inside a cocoon The side with love is what gets me feeling high SQUID INC. GABRIELLE ZWI I’m In Without A Label Bad thoughts come to my head Who you are, what defnes you I chased them away like you said Do we ever come without a label? I paint them with colors blue and green These days when we were younger Replace bad thoughts with good dreams These things didn’t matter anyway mary celeste a jack of all trades A true renaissance woman, Mary Ce- skis.