Hello and Good Day, Mike Pouch here!

Happy New Year everyone! I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s resolutions in the traditional sense, but rather, I like to use January as a time to reflect on the previous year and focus on setting goals for the new year.

Traditional resolutions are things like “I will go to the gym more” or “I will do a sketch a day”. The problem with these is that once you start going to the gym less than intended, or when you miss a day of sketching, you feel like you have failed your resolution, making it much easier to quit it. These resolutions often feel more like wishes. They are also hard to quantify (how much is ‘working out more’?).

New Year’s Goals, however, are things like “I will lose 15 pounds” or “I will release a 10 page comic book in print”. Because there is a real accomplishment in sight, even if you take a week off from working on this project, you can always get right back towards finishing it! These are much harder to fail, they are much more concrete, and they are completely quantifiable (you either finish it or you don’t).

So to practice what I preach, here is a list of projects I intend to finish this year. This is completely a sneak peek to my loyal blog readers and have not yet been announced anywhere else!

• Wake OST – Now that ‘Five Years’ has finally been released, I’ve had an inch to finish and release other old albums that were very near completion but somehow fell by the wayside. Wake OST is a soundtrack I composed for a short film in 2009. While it’s been available to listen around various parts of the internet, it never got a proper release! I’ve already mixed all the music, finished the album cover, and have the files ready to go! Expect this in the next few weeks!
• Dan Span – 7 – Dan Span’s seven deadly sins album that I produced, and yet another EP that was intended to be released in 2010. I made some very unique instrumentals for this and Dan Span recorded his vocals, but the final mixes never happened. The original artwork was unfortunately never completed either. I’ve already gone back into the old project files and have started working on the final mixes. I am also going to do eight illustrations for this, in the way I originally pictured the artwork looking. Intended release: late Feb-mid March.
• Christmas Album 2016 – I released a Christmas album in 2008 and again in 2009. It was supposed to be a yearly tradition, but once again all music projects came to a halt in 2010. This one was originally intended to be released in 2014 and 2015, but it was not finished in time. I intend to work on this throughout the year so it’ll be ready for a December release!
• The Missy’s – This is an unreleased punk album which I’ve written songs for; I’m keeping the rest of the details secret for now.
• Mike Pouch – Solo Album – I have a lot of unfinished and unreleased songs. I intend to finish five songs towards this album, with the rest of the songs (and the album) looking at a 2017 release.
• A First Time for Everything – [UPDATE – This was officially released on 3/10/16] – This is a ten page comic written by Benton Feight that I illustrated in late 2014. Once again, it’s available to read somewhere online, but never got a proper release!
• Short four page robot comic – A one-off scene from an intended larger comic about the fear of technology.
• Another ten page comic – I intend to write another 10 page comic, illustrate it, and release it by the end of the year.
• “Introducing Horizon of the Unknown” – a 24-page printed version of the three comics above. Horizon of the Unknown is a comic book publisher I quietly started last year. This will be the official introductory issue that will be sold in local comic book shops!
• LiterallyMindblowing – Continuing to post content to my site www.LiterallyMindblowing.com. At least one post a month, with the expansion of two new sections by the end of the year! This is certainly doable, as I did more than twelve similarly styled illustrations in one week! I intend to illustrate these in bulk.
• A monthly blog post – I’ve written a lot of content for this blog that has not been released!
• Three other illustration projects – I plan to submit artwork to be potentially used for a beer label, a local magazine, and a comic book cover.

I am sure other unexpected projects will arise as the year goes on, but this is the current projection. I may update this post throughout the year with links to projects as they get released! Good luck on your New Year’s Goals!

Until next time, enjoy life and keep creating!
Thanks for reading!

-MP