Running Head:  Transformational Leadership

Transformational Leadership

of

Karen Berger

Steve Alcorn

ELPA 6450

Professor Hogan

April 12, 2005

Transformational Leadership of Karen Berger

            One of the newest realms of leadership theory is the study of transformational leadership.  The earliest writings dealing with transformational leadership include Burns in 1978 and Bass in 1985.  Tichy and DeVanna (as cited in Northouse, 2004), building upon previous works pertaining to transformational leadership, focused their 1986 and 1990 studies on the question of how change is implemented by leaders within organizations.  They posit a model in which there is a three step process that leaders in organizational settings follow to incorporate change.  Tichy and DeVanna’s theories will be applied to an analysis of Karen Berger, the Executive Editor of the Vertigo Comics imprint of DC Comics, and how she was instrumental in bringing about the existence of this Vertigo Comics imprint.

            The first step of Tichy and DeVanna’s model (as cited in Northouse, 2004) is to recognize the need for change   Often organizations will remain complacent and resistant to anything that would challenge the norm.  Transformational leaders are those who recognize the need for the organization to grow and develop.

            This description certainly applies to Karen Berger.  When she went to work for DC Comics in 1979 (Contino, 2001) the mainstream comics market was stagnant.  According to Pustz (1999), the dominant genre was and had for the previous several years been the super-hero genre.  The main audience – 90% of the market – young males aged 12-20.  While there are so-called “alternative” comics – comics that are not of the super-hero genre and which are read by an older, more diverse demographic – these alternative comics constitute but a fraction of the total comics market.

            As one of the two largest publishers of mainstream comics at the time, DC Comics – the owners and publishers of the characters Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and others – were focusing primarily on super-heroes.  As Pustz (1999) points out, the mainstream of comics publishing focuses primarily on what will sell, on what will make money for the bottom line.  So for that time, super-heroes – gaudily garbed superhuman characters with incredible powers having somewhat implausible adventures – were the norm for the mainstream.

            Berger was brought into the comics field as an assistant editor for Paul Levitz, an editor for DC Comics.  Berger, who had not really read comics as a child, had graduated from Brooklyn College with a major in English Literature and a minor in Art History, and had plans to work for a museum or for an art magazine, not for a major comic book company.  Because of a friend called Marc DeMatteis who worked at DC Comics, though, Berger was introduced to Levitz.  Levitz was looking for someone to be his assistant, but wanted someone who was not associated with the comics industry (Contino, 2001).  Berger was hired, and, as a natural result of her background, brought a new and fresh outsider’s perspective to the status quo that was in place at DC Comics.

            Her perspective was vital to not only her future at DC Comics, but also to the future of DC Comics itself and, in a real sense, to the entire comics industry.  Not happy with or attracted to the super-hero genre, Berger (as cited in McCabe, 2004) was more interested in the few horror and mystery comics that DC was then publishing.  In an interview, Berger (as cited in McCabe, 2004) states that she wished to “edit books that I would like to read, so I guess bringing my sort of non-comics interest into comics was what I wanted to do” (p. 48).  Berger wanted change in the comics industry.

            The next step in Tichy and DeVanna’s model (as cited in Northouse, 2004) is to develop a vision.  This vision is not typically the creation of an individual, but rather is an amalgamation of numerous points of view.  A key part of this step is the creation of a mission statement that clearly delineates the particulars of the vision.

            Berger’s vision for what mainstream comics could be was shaped primarily by her experiences with certain British comic book writers who she encountered in the early 1980s.  The first was a man called Alan Moore.  Moore took over the writing chores of a DC horror comic book called Swamp Thing.  Alisa Kwitney (2003) describes Moore’s work on Swamp Thing as being a kind of a watershed event in the history of comics.  Moore brought realistic characterization and emotion to Swamp Thing, producing stories that, for the time, were atypical for the medium.

            Moore (as cited in Bender, 1999) credits much of his approach to the comics medium to the influence of science-fiction writers such as J.G. Ballard, M. John Harrison, and John Sladek.  These writers, Moore continues, inspired him to emulate their strategy of actively pushing the mores and conventions of old and established genres and to create something unique.

            Bender (1999) credits Moore with initiating a paradigm shift, and he states that Moore “went on to virtually reinvent comics by infusing old, tired situations and genres with a sharp, witty and contemporary point of view” (p. 9).  In an interview, Berger (as cited in McCabe, 2004) praises Swamp Thing by Alan Moore as “the first book to really do intelligent, adult, literary comics” and notes how “it was challenging the medium in mainstream comics” (p. 48).

            Wishing to capitalize upon this new style of comics writing, Berger, who was editing Swamp Thing by this time, spearheaded for DC Comics more comics produced by other British writers.  Essentially, making several trips to England, Berger, acting as DC’s British liaison, was instrumental in bringing more new and fresh outsider’s voices to the mainstream.  Berger’s efforts yielded revitalized approaches to six titles now edited by Berger and written by her growing stable of British writers:  Swamp Thing; Hellblazer; Sandman; Shade the Changing Man; Animal Man; and Doom Patrol. (Wilonsky, 2003).  These six titles became the core of what would eventually become the Vertigo imprint.

            In an interview, Berger (as cited in Wollonsky, 2003) tells something of her affinity for British writers of the time:  “When I became the British liaison, I went out there with the purpose of, ‘I want to find writers who can think that same way, that really want to do different things than comics’” (para. 9).  Berger wanted to find writers who shared her sensibilities and who shared her belief in the potential of the comics field.

            Berger’s sensibility and belief in comics’ potential was shaped by a number of factors.  One of which is her educational background in English Literature and Art History, and another is her lack of a background in comic books (Contino, 2001).  A third factor for this conviction is her gender.  Berger (as cited in Jennings, 2003) believes that women are braver than men when it comes to challenging mores and customs in the comics field.  In another interview, Berger (as cited in McCabe, 2004) states that “female editors have more guts” (p. 53).  All of these factors contribute to Berger’s outsider status and attitude.

            The final step of Tichy and DeVanna’s model (as cited in Northouse, 2004) is to institutionalize the change, to make it part of the new paradigm.  This part of the process of transforming an organizational structure may often involve personnel changes and/or re-training in order to better facilitate and effect transformation of the new vision to reality. 

            Having assembled a group of talented writers and artists throughout the mid to late 1980s who shared a certain amount of shared outlooks and perspectives, the next goal for Berger was to attempt to formalize her vision to her corporate superiors.  In an interview, Berger (cited in Contino, 2001) tells of the creation and implementation of the Vertigo imprint:

            The core Vertigo titles had already become their own little enclave in the early    ‘90s . . . and [Editor-in-chief] Jeanette Kahn and (Executive Editor) Dick        Giordano asked what I wanted to do with the titles I was editing.  We talked a lot      about the creative direction of the titles and the impact that they had in the market.         We decided to create a separate imprint for them, a rare thing to do in those days,         and to actively expand this sensibility.  I came up with a publishing plan for the   imprint, the Vertigo name and then we worked on acquiring many new projects.            Vertigo is successful because of the many talented writers and artists who created             so much quality material.  We had a good game plan, a solid marketing plan and a             lot of series in the can before we even launched. (para. 15)

Essentially, because of her success with editing and coordinating the six pre-Vertigo core titles, Berger was able to use that momentum to persuade DC to take a chance on expanding from the original base, allowing her to fortify and to expand upon her vision.  Vertigo was created as a separate imprint within DC Comics in 1993.

            With her new imprint established, Berger then continued with implementing her vision, with pushing the envelope of mainstream comics mores and conventions further and further, of, essentially, bringing a more alternative edge and spirit to the mainstream comics arena.  The fruits of her efforts have been many, and have changed the face and, to a degree, the demographic base of mainstream comics.  Some of the specific effects and outcomes of Berger’s transformational leadership and an idea of the day-to-day implementation of her vision within the milieu of Vertigo Comics can be observed through a close examination of what is the most popular and successful of the Vertigo books:  Sandman by Neil Gaiman.

            Written by Gaiman and published by Vertigo from 1989-1997, Sandman is a comic book that explores the fantasy genre.  Berger (1995) states how she recognized that with Sandman, Gaiman had crafted a story that had a definite beginning, middle, and end in mind, and, in a move atypical for the mainstream, which typically publishes something until it is no longer profitable to do so, she respected his desire to tell his story and to end it when his vision was attained.  This Berger (as cited in McCabe, 2004) did even though Sandman was Vertigo’s best-selling title.  Further, Gaiman (as cited in McCabe, 2004) tells how Berger maintained a hand-off approach for the day-to-day creation of Sandman and acted primarily as a sounding board for ideas and as a source of support.

            In addition to the detached editorial hand that Berger employed in working with Gaiman on Sandman, another factor that accounts for its continuing popularity is that, even though the comic ceased publication in 1997, it is still in print and is available in the form of tradepaperbacks.  A tradepaperback, often referred to as a graphic novel, is a bound collection of individual comics into a more permanent book format.  Graphic novels are a relatively new concept in the comic book marketplace, and Sandman graphic novels are continually in print and are perennial sellers for DC.  Jennings (2003), in fact, credits Vertigo as a major pioneering agent in the growing popularity of graphic novels in book stores.  A new Sandman graphic novel called Sandman:  Endless Nights, written by Neil Gaiman and published by Vertigo in 1993 to mark its 10^th anniversary, had a 1^st print run of 100,000 copies.

             A very noticeable phenomenon in an analysis of the demographic fan base of Sandman is the number of women and college-age adults who read the title.  Berger (1995) notes that Sandman not only attracts more female readers than any other mainstream comic, but that Sandman also appeals to people who don’t normally read comics at all.  According to Pustz (1999), one of the main factors that account for about half of Sandman’s audience being female is that Gaiman has created many strong and competent female characters to act as central protagonists in a number of his stories.  As a result, many more women read Sandman than typical super-hero comics.

            Still, there has been a bit of grumbling from some quarters of the comic book market about Vertigo’s success.  Fans of more traditional comic books – super-hero comics – think that Vertigo books are too avant-garde, too different from the norm (Jennings, 2003).  This difference from the norm, however, is exactly what Berger was seeking to accomplish for from the mainstream of comics, and, despite such criticism from some circles, Vertigo is still a viable entity within the corporate framework of DC Comics.

            Presently, Karen Berger has the title of Executive Editor, and she now works primarily on the development of new books, leaving the day-to-day editing of individual books to other editors who work under her (Contino, 2001).  Her vision having been implemented into DC Comics’ organizational structure, Berger, via Vertigo Comics, continues to work to further expand the medium that her transformational leadership has already changed.
                                                            References

Bender, H. (1999). Sandman Companion.  New York:  Vertigo Books.

Berger, K. (1995). Introduction.  In N. Gaiman, Sandman:  Preludes and nocturnes (4^th printing).  New York:  DC Comics.

Contino, J. M. (2001, January). A touch of vertigo:  Karen Berger.  Sequential Tart, 4 (1).  Retrieved February 10, 2005, from http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/feb01/berger.shtml

Jennings, D. (2003, September 15). At house of comics, a writer’s champion.  New York Times, p. C8. Retrieved February 10, 2005, from LexisNexis Academic News.

Kwitney, A. (2003). Sandman:  King of dreams.  San Francisco:  Chronicle Books.

McCabe, J. (2004). Hanging out with the dream king:  Conversations with Neil Gaiman and his collaborators.  Seattle, WA:  Fantagraphics Books.

Northouse, P.G. (2004). Leadership:  Theory and practice (3^rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications.

Putsz, M. J. (1999). Comic book culture:  Fanboys and true believers. Jackson, MS:  University Press of Mississippi.

Wilonsky, R. (2003). The bleeding edge.  Dallas Observer.  Retrieved February 10, 2005, from LexisNexis Academic News.