I’ve been touching on some up and coming comic book leaders throughout the site…Mainly Phil Hampton, and Tyler James and I’m sure there are a number of others like Mat Nastos and Dave Baxter. And there are a lot of authoritative leaders already well established in the comic book community like Jason Thibault, C.B.Cebulski and others, but where does true Comic Book Leadership come from? There are arguments to be made that people are born with it, they learn it or they are given it.

ARE TRUE LEADERS BORN?

We may like to think that true leaders are born with some special gift. And I can’t argue that point, some people tend to be “natural” leaders and have the personality to back that up. But I would argue that each of us is a leader in our own little circle of influence. The minute you see yourself as that type of leader, the quicker you will see your comic career take off like never before.

ARE TRUE COMIC BOOK LEADERS DEVELOPED?

I believe great leaders are developed by great leaders. Leadership can be cultivated in anybody. As soon as you become a parent you are a leader to that child. It doesn’t take any education, or explaining, or diploma. You are dad. or You are mom. You are a leader. You lead the child well, he’ll grow up well. You lead a child up poor and you’ll end up regretting it.  Just like we develop our children, or our creations, or our circle of influence, we have to develop ourselves everyday to be the leader in comics we want to be.

The comic book culture is counting on us to be those leaders and to cultivate new leaders that will outgrow, outlast and outperform us. What better gift to give the industry than to give it a ton of new leaders driving the comic book media forward like never before. Wouldn’t the whole industry thank you.

ARE TRUE COMIC BOOK LEADERS GIVEN LEADERSHIP?

A lot of times you will see people put in position of leadership. This is called ironically “positional leadership”. We all know someone who fits this bill. Someone who is not a good leader, but because they have a title, we have to follow them and do what they say. This is not a good leader. Positional leadership is very hard to earn the respect you need from other leaders, although it may get you the respect from employees.

If you are to make a lasting position of leadership, you must develop other leaders in your comic book organization and company. Leaders cultivating leaders will make the biggest difference in the comic book industry.

The POINT: You are a leader No matter where you are in your career, you can lead exactly where you are right now. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.