Just Make It

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 047: You need two things to take your first comic script from start to finish: perseverance and grit.

• The most pivotal moment in writing your first issue is understanding that it’s not going to be what’s in your head the first time it gets on paper. It’s going to be very sloppy and very bad—and that’s the way it should be.
• Perfection isn’t found in inactivity.
  If it doesn’t exist, you can’t make it better. Start writing.
• Motivation is found in the doing. You can’t sit around and wait to be inspired. You have to start. You have to execute.
• Get your script on paper. That will forever and always be the catalyst behind moving it to completion.
• Elevate your script with each revision. Your job isn’t to make it perfect on the first try. Writing is an iterative process.
• Get your script in front of people who are going to give you positive, constructive criticism. You’re not looking for compliments or kudos at this stage.
• Don’t try to justify everything once you’re given feedback. This feedback is to help elevate the first draft of your comic. Apply it where it matters to move it forward.
• Surround yourself with talent, not people. Quality over quantity.
  Invest.
• At the beginning stages of building a brand, by no means should the words ‘cheap’ come out of your mouth.
• Stand on the principle of value in all you do.
• Fold story into every single aspect of this process from start to finish.
• Story doesn’t start and end at the script. It has to go into everything else

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 045: You’re going to wish that you were further ahead, wish you had more money, or even question what you’ve gotten yourself into. But it all happens for a reason and we’re here to tell you in this episode to not rush or lose faith in the process.

• Once you set your vision and make it clear, have enough faith to walk the road before you and trust you’ll get to the end of it.
• Stay out of your feelings. You aren’t always going to feel like doing this, but push through.
• Invest today, reap the benefits tomorrow.
• Don’t be afraid to play the long game.
• You’re going through what you’re going through to learn something. Without going through it, you won’t get to the next level.
• Growth and maturity comes with the process.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 044: You have to set bigger goals. Once you’ve set them, you have to devise a plan on how to achieve them. It isn’t enough to plan. You and your team have to execute on that goal and it needs to be executed on as a single, cohesive unit.

• You have two choices. Believe in you goals or fear your goals.
• Your bigger goals should be ambitious and scare you a little bit.
• Don’t let goals sit in the idea stage. Execute on them. It’s not enough to just talk about it.
• Learn how to reverse engineer your goals.
• Reverse engineering is the process of building the goal backwards to see the steps it would take to get there.
• When your team meets in person, the relationships should elevate.
• Meeting in person allows conversations and ideation to continue. Online discussions start and end when the connection is started and then shut down. In-person allows for spontaneity of ideas and creativity.
• Your team should meet at least once a year to create these bonds and experiences.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 043: It’s con season and if you’re preparing to get to one, we’re positive this episode will give you some insight and information on how to make the most out of your experience.

• Artist Alley and Cosplayers are the lifeblood of conventions.
• Art is a business. You need to treat it like such if you’re going to be at a table or booth.
• There’s a level of customer service required of you if you’re selling your products to the public. Learn to engage with people.
• The Rule of Reciprocity still applies. Give before asking. Don’t make it all about you and don’t look for hookups. Support others first.
• You should always be representing yourself. Leave the Marvel and DC t-shirts home. Invest in your own merchandise and business cards.
• You have to nail your pitch. Practice it. Go back and listen to Episode 28 for guidance.
• Opportunities are everywhere. You have to be the one to open your mouth or make the first move to obtain them.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 042: In this episode, you’ll learn some of Brent’s tips as he shares his advice so you can improve your time management skills to make room for what you truly love to do.

• Learn to prioritize. And to do this, you’re going to have to learn how to start saying no to certain things and people.
• Understand the difference between important events and urgent events.
• Stop reacting to urgent events. The important events should take priority.
• Be proactive with your time instead of reactive.
• Stop treating your time like it’s on autopilot.
• Focus on important tasks that contribute to your long term goals such as school, work and also the time for your passion.
• Ask yourself throughout the day: Is this the best use of my time right now?
• Find out what works best for you. Meaning if setting timers on your phone helps you balance your tasks, priorities, and life, do it. If writing everything down on a whiteboard better suits you, do that instead.
• Do one thing at a time. Focus on that one thing, enjoy it, then move onto the next. Do not split your focus across multiple things.
• Focus your energy on what matters most.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 041: The biggest lesson you need to learn is that you have to give and share value to others. We’re talking about the Rule of Reciprocity again. Give before asking,

• Mistake #1: You only keep talking about YOU. We are inherently selfish and like the be the hero of our own story. You can’t be the hero of your audience’s story. Put them in the spotlight.
• Mistake #2: You don’t engage with others. It’s still all about you. You only want people to click and share your things but never return the gesture.
• Mistake #3: You aren’t visual. You just keep posting walls of text.
• Mistake #4: You’re not curating. You just keep posting all of the things and not making yourself part of the conversation by doing so.
• Mistake #5: You’re trying to be on every social network. Go where your audience is. You aren’t required to be on everything.
• Mistake #6: You have no strategy.
• Mistake #7: You aren’t giving and sharing anything of value.
• Mistake #8: This is the big one: *You may not be ready to be on social media.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

• We’re tribal by nature. We form communities even when we aren’t thinking about it. We just like being around like-minded people who shame the share affinity towards something as we do.
• Getting in a community of like-minded people is where you have the opportunity to grow.
• There’s an invisible language barrier when you aren’t in a community of your own. Thinking big around small thinkers is intimidating to those small thinkers.
• Thinking big around big thinkers leads to bigger ideas.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 039: Collaboration—true, diverse collaboration—is your opportunity to get talented people around what you’ve built and multiply it by 10. It isn’t a gathering of opinions, feedback and criticism. It’s an opportunity to expand what you’ve done and take it to a higher level.

• The whole point of collaboration is to create a better, smarter solution than you could with one perspective.
• Collaboration is the gateway to bigger, better ideas that wouldn’t come about through your one perspective.
• True collaboration is bringing together people of different perspectives, experiences, cultures, races, ethnicity, genders, etc.
• If you all come from the same place, with the same perspective, with the same world-view—that isn’t collaboration. That’s groupthink.
• Getting phenomenal people around your project leads to expansive, ambitious ideas; better stories; newer characters; and territory you would’ve never explored on your own.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 038: In this episode, we dive into the importance of leadership and how to go about doing it for projects like this. Ed shares his experiences leading from the front and Brent shares his experiences of working with Arclight and how the leadership allows each team member to perform their best work, as well as unlock their potential so Arclight can continue delivering content.

• Leadership is about sacrifice, not calling the shots.
• You have to lead from the front. Leading from the back isn’t inspiring or motivating anyone.
• You are required, by design, to do more as the leader. Never should you ever ask anyone to do more than what you’re willing to do.
• You cannot put expectations on others that you haven’t put on yourself.
• Leadership is a skill not intended for those who only want to be in control or in charge. You have to be benevolent, not a dictator.
• It is important to constantly communicate your company’s story, challenges, values, and directives to the team.
• Team buy-in is important. They should feel like they have some ownership in the grander vision.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 037: In this episode, we talk about how both are a really important part of your company, your brand, and the overall experience the audience will have, while also sharing what you need to start creating engaging characters that aren’t carbon copies of existing mainstream properties.

• Your characters represent the brand at large. They are the face of your company.
• You cannot give us average, mediocre characters that instantly make a connection to an already existing character.
• Characters are living, breathing logos for you brand that set up the marketing and advertising vehicles.
• Stories and characters are connected to your need and vision.
• Stories and characters are products of your comic universe’s infrastructure. That infrastructure determines the kinds of characters and stories that will be allowed to live inside that world.
• If your characters and stories are average, the need, vision and infrastructure—no matter how great—won’t support them.
  Characters and stories are on the front end of your brand. Everything else is on the back end.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Key Takeaways

• If you ignore infrastructure, you’re ignoring the foundation and success of your company.
• Building infrastructure gives everything a foundation. It’s the framework of the entire operation that everything else will depend on.
• There’s an 80/20 rule here. 80% of the infrastructure is cultural infrastructure. 20% is the comic universe infrastructure.
• There are two playgrounds: 1) The playground the team has to play in and 2) The playground your characters and stories have to play in. Both playgrounds and their rules are of the utmost importance.
• Your need and vision are connected to the infrastructure you build. In fact, it should be inspired by those two things.
• Comic universe infrastructure builds the model for the kinds of stories you’re going to tell and the kinds of characters needed to tell them. Arclight’s infrastructure requires we fold realism into our IP, therefore, the universal model invites political and social commentary into our stories.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 035: Great characters and stories are very important, but if you don’t address the business side of this, moving and progressing forward is going to get really tough. And that’s why we’ve decided to put on this six part series of what it really takes to get started in creating an indie comic book company.

• You have to discover a need in this market. If there is no need, you will not have a market.
• The need you discover leads to a market. The market leads to an audience. Your audience leads to sales.
• Vision gives the need you’ve identified direction. It’s how you’re going to deliver this to your audience.
• Your fleeting inspiration and motivation may be due to not finding a need to sustain your project enough to convert over to a business.
• Lack of vision keeps you walking around in circles. You have to have an outline/picture of what is to come, then reverse engineer it on how to get there.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 034: Whether you’re an indie creator wanting to build a company or studio, or someone who wants to work at one of the mainstream entities, you need to know what’s coming during your next five years and how to get through them.

• We’ve officially launched our subscription-based access to the backlog of our podcast archives.
  In order to gain access to all episodes, you now must have a subscription.
• What we’re creating and building requires money. Lots of it. This is why we’re repositioning our business model and focusing on getting cash flow to produce everything we want.
• We aren’t using crowdfunding to fund Arclight. We want to try something different here and fund ourselves based on products and/or services we offer. Treat our store like a Kickstarter. Support us by purchasing.
• Step One: Establish is all about laying the groundwork and building infrastructure. You have to build your house on solid ground, not sand.
• Step Two: Protect is all about believing in your dream enough to not be discouraged or swayed by the opinions of others. Stand by what you believe in.
• Step Three: Build is all about putting in the work. Just don’t talk about it, be about it.
• Step Four: Execute is all about delivering. You have to execute. You just can’t keep building and get stuck in that routine. Eventually, people will start walking away if they don’t see proof of concept.
• Step Five: Expand & Grow is all about your vision and dream expanding into what you planned in Step One.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 032: Scaling back isn’t giving up. It’s inviting your vision and ambition into your existing reality and making the impossible possible.

• You can only talk so much. Eventually people want to see some level of execution. Scaling back allows you to do that.
• Scaling back isn’t giving up. It’s allowing you to take a small step forward towards your bigger vision.
• If you feel you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, that’s a sign you need to consider scaling back.
• Don’t think you need to write an entire issue straight out the gate. Try a 10-page issue, a 5-page issue, or a mini issue to start. Get a process and system in place before tackling the bigger goals.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 031: We talk about how to prepare yourself to grind every single morning, what the requirements and cost of entry are for artists to really stand out from our own perspective, highlight how every person responsible in the creation of the comic adds to the story, and some of the sacrifices that need to be made in order to achieve your dreams.

• Be purposeful and intentional in all that you do be it practice, commissions, client work, etc.
• Showing up everyday doesn’t mean sitting in front of your computer and looking through Facebook. You have to put in real work.
• From the writer, to the artist, to the ink artist, story exists every step of the way. You have the opportunity to enhance and add to it depending on your role in the production process.
• 3 AM and 6 AM are hustle hours. Any later than 6 AM, you’re too late.
• Once your feet hit the floor you’re a storyteller.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 029: In this episode, we examine our intense system and mini issue production process, breaking down the different phases;reminiscing about past issues and how certain storytelling elements came to be; cover art production, lettering and so much more with the release of our newest eGuide: Create. Validate. And Build Your Fandom With Mini Issues.

• Get the story out of your head, onto the page, and then for all of us to read in a single, one-page issue.
• Mini issues are validation tools. They’re designed and used to help you build an audience around what you’re doing.
• Don’t invest thousands of dollars into something you’re not really sure people are going to like. Produce mini issues to see what’s resonating and what isn’t.
• Mini issues are a fantastic way to discover your brand’s voice, your stories and characters.
• We use a collaboration technique called Plussing. This allows us to develop the best story we can possibly tell together.
• Our process comes in a number of phases for you to follow along with.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 028: In this episode we give you some techniques on how to utilize the power of emotion. How to dial up the engagement between you and a listener every single time

• We want to feel something in your pitch. Don’t pitch the entire story. Get us emotionally invested.
• Think in terms of a tweet or 30 seconds or less. It’s your job to get us invested within those timeframes and you have to be able to deliver.
• Do not use established properties to carry the emotional response of your story.
• Leave genre out of it. Genre makes up about 1% of this pie. Your story and the heart of it is the other 99%.
• Get to the heart of your story. Get to the core truth and core message of it and pitch that.
• If your story doesn’t have a heart, you’re going to have a hard time pitching. It is your obligation to make sure your pitch has soul.
• Get us thinking. Get us immersed. Captivate us.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 027: We talk about the benefits of building your own platform; using social media as acquisition channels. We give you platform-building resources and even share with you what to do if you’re an independent artist, writer or colorist and how you can stand out from the crowd by creating an experience and personal brand on your own platform.

• Yes. You do need your own website. There is absolutely no substitute for your own platform.
• No. You don’t need something huge to start with. If social media is all you can afford at this time that is perfectly fine. But eventually, you need to start building your own.
• We’re essentially renting out these platforms’ backyards. The rules of the game can change at any minute whether we like it or not.
• If social media went away tomorrow, do you have a home to call your own your audience can go to and interact? If the answer is no, you are not insured.
• When you build your own platform you control the experience. You’re in complete control of what your brand is capable of.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 026: You have to start doing something different and start giving something away to get people to care and pay attention. This market we operate in is incredibly crowded, and in order to stand out you need to embrace, adopt and execute on the Rule of Reciprocity.

• Stop marketing the same way everyone else is. Find a different lane to drive in and own it.
• There are hundreds of people creating noise and spam asking everyone on Facebook to buy and click their thing. Are you going to become part of the noise or take a different approach?
• What content can you start giving away for free? What can you share with your audience? What can you teach them?
• The Rule of Reciprocity says that in many social situations, we pay back what we received from others.
• Get into the value business. What are you giving to your audience that’s valuable in order for them to not only care, but keep caring about what you’re doing, saying, and ultimately, selling?

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 025: We talk about everything from Tim and Neph’s transition from show listeners to full-time Arclight artists; to how our team works and functions from day-to-day; we reflect on past episodes and topics; pitch ideas for newer ones and newer series; explain why we tell the kind of stories we tell in our mini issues; talk about our prequel issue launch; and when the Arclight villains are coming and how we’re approaching developing them.

• This podcast is all about letting you know what lies ahead as you create your first independent comic.
• Keep in mind: it isn’t as easy as ‘creating superheroes’. You’re responsible for a lot of moving parts. We do our best to talk about the things you’re going encounter and will need to know before you get there.
• Story needs to drive everything you do. From characters to the actual script—even when deciding if new hires are going to be able to create new characters. If you give story priority, everything else will fall into place.
• Be aware: It takes hard work and hustle to make a Kickstarter successful. You have to do some leg work before throwing your project on the platform. Otherwise, the results aren’t pretty.
• Diversity is an industry buzzword. The way you can do things differently is by focusing on the character as a human being and a person, not a minority.
• Arclight tells its stories from the perspective of our own experiences and realities. The stories we’ve told so far are the ones we want to see back in comics. Stories that resonate and connect on a more human and personal level.
• The greatest villains are the ones that believe they’re the hero of the story. Don’t give your heroes so much shine that you forget to develop a compelling villain.
• Arclight’s villains are getting ready to be worked on. We’re changing direction and giving them a priority.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 024: We revisit this topic and go over how discovering your why helps you overcome the desire to quit.

• You can’t be afraid to fail in life. You’re going to fail. Learn from it and move on.
• No matter what anyone else has told you, you do have a reason and purpose for being alive. You have to discover what that is and use it to its full potential.
• Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your project. You have to play the long game. You have to grow, cultivate, nurture and have the patience to tend the soil to reap a plentiful harvest.
• Your Why has to be bigger than you. It can’t come from a place of selfishness.
• When you’re down and out, when life gets really, really hard, and when all hope seems lost, your Why is one of the single most defining factors of making sure you get right back up.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Disclaimer: Please be advised, some of the information, advice, and practices may be outdated and no longer be in use by Mayke Entertainment.

Inside Episode 023: You want to have a name that really resonates with your character? Want to have powers that just make sense? Then this episode will help you get there.

• For those who cannot draw, the physical description section is going to help you put one together to give to your artist.
• Your character should inform us of who and what they are before we get to that first line of text.
• Everything we’ve covered previously should inform your design decisions.
  Don’t give your character a million powers.
• The best powers are the ones that become an extraordinary extension of ordinary limitations.
• Do your research before naming a character. A lot of names are trademarked by Marvel and DC.
• Everything leading up to this last stage should inform the name. The name should mean something and resonate with the character.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 022: We’re sharing what you need in order to create believable character motivations, flaws that challenge your character, and how to approach the origin story.

• The key to creating storytelling powerhouses is giving those characters soul.
• Storytelling powerhouses are your Spider-Mans, Wonder-Womans, and Supermans. That very high-end level of character who’s stories have been around for generations.
• Your characters have to embody the human condition and element, and be reflections of humanity.
• When it comes to superheroes, we need a balance of the ordinary and the extraordinary.
• You need those ordinary moments and a backdrop or a world for your character to function in outside of the superhero persona.
• Character motivations give our characters something to do. If there’s nothing motivating them, how else is the story moving forward?
• Your character in action is what makes plot, and motivation creates action and individualizes the character.
• You have flaws and things you just aren’t quite good at with your character and the same reality needs applied to your character. Your fictional character.
• Origin stories have the potential to be magical. They show us the exact moment when this ordinary person became extraordinary, but there are three different kinds of origins superheroes undergo

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 021: Ed starts us off on a solo show and goes into how to unleash the soul of your character and get into the nuts-and-bolts of how you create a storytelling powerhouse out of that character.

• The key to creating storytelling powerhouses is giving those characters soul.
• Storytelling powerhouses are your Spider-Mans, Wonder-Womans, and Supermans. That very high-end level of character who’s stories have been around for generations.
• Your characters have to embody the human condition and element and be reflections of humanity.
• When it comes to superheroes, we need a balance of the ordinary and the extraordinary.
• You need those ordinary moments and a backdrop or a world for your character to function outside of the superhero persona.
• You supercharge your reader’s care and desire to understand your characters and story by layering the complexity.
• As the creator, it is your responsibility to create the material necessary to tell your reader more from your backstory.
• We don’t give enough weight to the importance of core personality traits and habitual behaviors.
• Habitual behaviors add to the grander presence, brand, essence, and soul of major characters. You can do the same thing.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 020: In this episode, Brent and I talk about how you should go about building an epic indie comic studio team that gets stuff done. Because if you aren’t getting stuff done, you aren’t going anywhere. And in order to get somewhere, you need all the right people in the right places to start.

• If people are knocking down your door and asking you if they can join your studio or project, you need to pay attention
• You need people who are passionate, who are gifted, who are smarter than you, and with amazing attitudes.
• People respond to passion. It’s a driving force. Recognize it and if they’re the right fit, bring those people aboard.
• You have to have someone with vision otherwise, where are you going as a team.
  Focus on what you’re good at, then bring someone in who’s good at the other stuff you can’t handle.
• You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room just because you’re the leader.
• Build a team on the exchange of opportunity, not favor. When you ask someone to join your project, you’re requesting a favor. When they ask you, you’re giving them an opportunity.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 019: In this episode, we give you four strong cases with an additional four ways on how to approach world building that lets you have that fun and progress your comic at the same time.

• Let the world you’re building serve the story, not the story serving the world.
• The story is going to control your comic universe and how much world-building needs to be developed.
• The only difference between you and someone else that made a comic is that they made a comic.
• Spiraling out of control with world-building keeps you from making a comic and being in the number that doesn’t produce comics.
• The story isn’t finished until it’s drawn, inked, colored, and fully lettered.
• World-building doesn’t move your product forward. The story does. No one is going to buy your world bible because nobody cares. Your story gives them a reason to care.
• Let your story set the limit to how much world-building you need to do.
• You have to work hard, then play hard. The work is your story, the play is world-building. Keep those balanced.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 018: Ed dives into how to go about putting together a name for yourself, what should be given priority and weight, how Arclight found its name, and how you can set your name apart.

• Put more weight and focus on what your name represents first, then draft a list of names that will reflect that meaning.
• Your brand name needs to represent something that matters to your audience
• It takes years for your name to stand on its own and still be associated with the thing that you do. “Apple” use to be “Apple Computers” for example

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 017: In this episode, Ed shares the Arclight character design process in detail, going over the three major phases—Concept, Story, and Design—and some of the steps in each, including The Rapid-Pitch Method, Building the Visual Mood Board, and Making Yourself Vulnerable to the Character.

• Marvel and DC Comics are marketing and branding machines. They put their characters everywhere. In order to do the same, you have to learn how to get your characters to the point where they can be broken down to their simplest forms. If not, you don’t get to do any of this.
• There are three major phases to our character design process: Concept, Story, and Design.
• The Concept Phase gives you the opportunity to start at what’s called a baseline concept and rapidly build it up to a point where you have the opportunity to make a specific archetype uniquely your own.
• The Story Phase gives you the opportunity to create a unique balance of ordinary and extraordinary moments for your character. This was one of our findings when we researched Marvel and DC. Your characters can’t fight all the time. You have to have ordinary moments between the extraordinary ones.
• The Design Phase breaks down our study of Marvel and DC characters and highlights the importance of silhouette, iconography, and color theory.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 016: When you invest, develop, and support good people, they will invest, develop, and create good ideas in return.

• Find, develop, and support good people, and they, in turn, will find, develop, and own good ideas.
• Life and death are the power held in our tongues. You can choose to speak life into your people or kill their enthusiasm and passion for your project. It’s your choice.
• This is building infrastructure again. Don’t wait to start investing in your people when you have a million-dollar budget. Start now.
• Investing in your people right now doesn’t have to be financial. Be creative and find ways to start doing this today.
• You don’t invest in everyone. Everyone isn’t always going to be an asset or a huge value to the project and business—and that’s simply because not everyone sticks around for the long haul. But for the ones that do, grow them, challenge them, and give them the necessary experience and independence to have a sense of ownership with the project.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 015: Failure is our teacher, not our undertaker. And we have to learn how to re-purpose the negative connotations and flip them to positive associations. Failures and mistakes can be used as learning tools.

• You are not the sum of your failures and mistakes. Pick yourself up and learn from them.
• Embrace the concept of failing early—the earlier you fail, the faster you learn and grow.
• Failure and mistakes are learning tools. Don’t associate them with negative connotations.
• Failing gives you an opportunity to find a different way to do something. Don’t quit after the first try. Something didn’t work. Figure out what that is and do it.
• Establish a culture of failing early. This allows your volunteers or employees to embrace failure. You’re running a business, not a regime.
• Change your mindset about failure. It’s psychological. The fear of it may not ever exist in your reality.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 014: Branding is not so much the look of it, but the “feel” of it. It’s more than logos and colors. Branding is an opportunity to create strong, positive associations and affiliations with your business that keep people coming back for more, and in order to start building a brand like that, you need to have a solid grasp on the fundamentals.

• Find ways to innovate. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, but you need to be different. If your competition zigs, you need to zag. We started this podcast as a new way to market our books.
• Bring value to your audience.
• When you innovate, that innovation is valued and your brand can leverage that value.
• Validation means bringing your audience into the creative process. This is what our mini issues are for. We’re publicly testing, gathering data and information based on these issues.
• Validation helps you build something your audience wants versus something they don’t want. It’s the difference between selling to 2 people and selling to thousands.
• Validation allows you to tweak your product and brand accordingly and fix what isn’t working.
• Cultivating your brand means you’re influencing the character of your brand.
• Building a brand comes with consistency and developing a pattern of behavior.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 013: To influence and command an audience into buying from you, a brand must be established, maintained and be consistent. But you can only start doing that if you have an understanding of what branding is.

• A brand is not a logo, colors, fonts, a website, business cards, etc.
• A brand is a collection of thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, and experiences a person associates with your brand.
• A brand is someone’s gut feeling about you. It’s intangible. It takes no physical form.
• Your logo, colors, fonts, etc. are what’s called your brand identity. Those make your brand tangible and communicate who and what your brand is.
• One of the biggest tools you can start using now to build your brand is consistency.Your audience wants you to be consistent.
• To have a consistent output, you need content to maintain at least a weekly output. Don’t get on social media just yet until you have content to share.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 012: We cover one of the most important, fundamental steps to protect your comic project and to present your business’ infrastructure: contracts and agreements.

• Value your business/project/company and also the friendship enough to protect them.
• Established good communication with others, what their roles are, and their responsibilities to the company by using agreements.
• Use contracts – it will save you time, money, energy and most importantly it will save the relationship (friendships).
• Learn to have integrity, transparency, and humanity when running your business/company/project.
• Do not use contracts to hold onto other’s ideas as hostage. Learn how to do more of what works without the ideas you have under a Work-For-Hire agreement. As the visionary, you need to come up with your own ideas no matter what the agreement/contract says you have a right to use.
• Be a machine of ideas and get into the habit of creating more of what works.
• Remember, the Google search engine is your friend. Use it. Do your research on contracts and agreements. Nobody can be a professional in everything; however, there is no excuse why you cannot try to research something to better your business and project.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 011: We talk about the very well-known 3 Act Structure and how to approach it with your own story.

• Don’t focus only on the character’s little details that are not necessarily needed, take time to develop the story and your characters will come along with it. Balance is key.
• The Three Act Structure is, at its core, simply Beginning, Middle and End.
• Do the rough draft first and then choose a story theory and apply it to your story. Stick to only one theory.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 010: In this episode, Brent takes the lead and shares with us another story theory: The Hero’s Journey. Found in epic movies such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, The Hero’s Journey invites us to tell a story using a Three Act Structure, 12 steps your character must go through to grow, and character archetypes that will challenge your character and entertain your readers.

• Write your story first. Then chose a story theory. If you decide to learn the theory first, then write your story, you’ll try to write within the context of the theory and have a more difficult time just getting the broader stuff out of your head and onto paper. Writing first, you get everything out of your head from start to finish. Then when you finish learning theory, you can now rewrite your completed draft through the lens of this theory and have the chance to improve what you’ve already written for the next draft.
• Don’t cherry-pick theories to start. If you’re going to do The Hero’s Journey, do The Hero’s Journey. If you’re going to do Dramatica, do Dramatica. Don’t confuse yourself or your story by mixing all the theories up. Have a single focus.
• The Hero’s Journey gives you more flexibility. There are different variations of the theory that use different terminology, but you can choose the one that fits you best.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 009: In this episode, Ed does his first solo show as he walks you through an introduction to Dramatica, going over a few of its defining features: the Story Mind; the Four Throughlines; and the 8 Character Archetypes that saved his characters from becoming convoluted and repetitive.

• Dramatica is complex, but it isn’t impossible. Don’t let its difficulty run you off. It’s worth diving in and learning. If you can master it, you’ll be telling stories on a Pixar-level.
• Write. Learn. Apply. Rewrite. That’s the order you need to approach Dramatica with. If not, you’ll get caught in the other cycle: Learn. Learn. Learn. Get stressed out. Get frustrated. Don’t write. No matter how sloppy your story is, get it done first, learn Dramatica, then go back to your story and apply what was learned.
• Dramatica’s Story Mind basically approaches every story in the context of an argument. And within that grand argument, there are four perspectives this argument must be filtered through for your story to have no holes or inconsistencies. These throughlines are: 1) Overall Story Throughline, 2) Main Character Story Throughline, 3) Impact Character Story Throughline, and 4) Relationship Story Throughline.
• The 8 Character Archetypes help refine and structure your characters to prevent overlap and redundancy.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 008: Conflict keeps our lives interesting. It gives us challenges to overcome and allows us to grow as people. The same conflicts you go through are the same conflicts your character(s) need to go through in order to drive your story forward.

• Conflict keeps the story moving forward. It reveals your character’s inner strength and weaknesses, and helps the readers to judge the motives of your character, thus forming an opinion.
• Conflict challenges your characters and helps expose your character’s different belief systems, perspectives on life, and weaknesses.
• Finding the soul of your characters helps create great internal conflict.
• There’s only 1 internal conflict:
  Man v. Self
• There are 4 external conflicts:
  Man v. Man
  Man v. Nature
  Man v. Society
  Man v. Fate
• There are 2 additional conflicts:
  Man v. God/ Supernatural
  Man v. Machines

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 007: We talk about the importance of planning and organizing for your comic project. It isn’t enough to say, “I want to make a comic.” You need to have steps in place to get to that end goal. We share some of our mishaps and mistakes from not planning, Arclight’s big mistake with Facebook, what happens when you don’t have the resources to maintain social media, and more.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 006: Your inspiration began somewhere. Your gateway into superheroes and comics were because of the larger companies/corporations. You may not agree with everything they’re doing, but we have to honor and respect the journeys they individually traveled to open the doors for us.

• You aren’t going to achieve your comic goals any faster by dissing and disrespecting those who have come before you.
• Humility goes a long way. You can strive to outdo an existing company, but be humble and respectful about it all in the same breath.
• As your project and other endeavors gain traction, always remember to keep the arrogance at home and recognize your fans and those who have supported you along the way.
• You may not change the genre, but you can influence it.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 005: In the 2nd episode of our 6-part series, we go over all 9 plots, their examples, and even go into how they’re used in our own comic projects and stories.

• You don’t have to stick to just one plot. Several plots can happen within your comic’s story. The best example of multiple plots is Star Wars. Star Wars is a rags to riches quest where the hero overcomes the monster on a voyage and return while the Villain experiences rebirth at the end.
• You can’t put syrup on trash and expect pancakes, you’re just going to get syrupy trash. You only get phenomenal storytelling when you make story a priority and not an afterthought.
• Even with finding the soul of your character, having a great story to tell through them helps you find the soul.
• You need great characters to tell a great story. You need a great story to support great characters. You can’t have one without the other.
• Note: Ed keeps pounding on his desk. He won’t do that again, but that’s the thudding noise you keep hearing in the recording. Forgive us!

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 004: In this first part of our 6-part series, we dive into the importance of putting story first in your comic project. We also talk about the dangers of world-building and briefly run down the basic story structure cycle so that you can get started writing immediately after this episode.

• Without a story, you don’t have a product. You just have a book of highly polished thoughts, ideas, and concepts.
• Early world-building and character development are fine (it’s all part of the fun), but having a story in place will let you know long you need to keep those things in development. If the story doesn’t call for fleshing out the character’s history, then that development can be saved for later.
• A story brings focus. You aren’t creating into the ether once you have it in place.
• You need to know when to stop world-building. The story isn’t going to write itself.
• Just starting writing. Don’t worry about story structure, story theory, etc. at the beginning. Get something written, then come back and refine what you’ve written through the lens of story structure, story theory, etc.
• If you haven’t written it yet, you can’t perfect it. You have to actually put pencil to paper or open a Word document and have living text in a physical space to start getting towards the perfect story that lived in your head.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 003: We explain why you can’t just invest all of your time and resources in developing your superheroes. Your villains and support characters have a much bigger role in how your universe works more than you know.

• Your hero is only as great as his or her villain.
• You won’t always be able to tell hero v. villain stories. It’s in those ordinary moments we learn about your character. Your supporting cast gives that character an ordinary world to live in. They help challenge that character and take us down avenues your character or their villain may not.
• Your villains have the potential to be iconic if you give them the time and resources to be developed properly.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info, and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 002: Your character’s soul is the makeup of their core beliefs, their values, what they stand for, and how all of that influences their decisions. Finding the soul is taking a stereotype or a trope and flipping it on its head to create a living, breathing, 3-dimensional character that can stand the test of time and provide your comic with stories for years to come.

• Finding your character’s soul gives you the storytelling potential to keep that character in circulation for years to come.
• Never build a character on your own bias or assumptions. Doing your due diligence and research opens your mind to new information. Information changes situations, and that’ll help you build characters outside of your own culture from a place of authenticity.
• Tropes and stereotypes are lazy, cheap, and tell unoriginal and uninspiring stories that are flat. Discovering your character’s soul builds in that third dimension so your character has the depth you need to tell a wider range of original and inspiring stories through that character.

Before Mayke Entertainment, we were Arclight Comics! Tune into the re-release of The Arclight Podcast and get insightful tips, info and advice on how we make comics. We shared everything we learned from 2009 to 2016. Learn how we branded our company, handled legal issues, character design, story development, and more!

Inside Episode 001: Building a comic universe and brand, then delivering it all in the form of a comic is no easy task. But the most important step in the right direction is to start with Why.

• Your Why is the backbone of your project. Without it, when all of the cards are down when the entire team quits, what is the internal fire that’s telling you to stay and finish the job?
• Your Why has to be bigger than you. You can’t do this for fame, for the glory or the money. This has to be an all-encompassing, spiritual and faith-driven reason that’ll get you through the obstacles and hardships you’ve yet to face.
• You don’t need to put your Why together in a day, but you need to start getting an understanding of it and do some self-exploration to find it.