Leef Smith grew up in '70s hippy San Francisco with hand-made clothes, a vegetarian diet and progressive politics, as well as Legos, Star Wars, and comic books, starting with Tintin. Later he was drawn into contemporary mainstream comics by the  X-Men and Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the rich complexity they offered.  Growing up in the rich diversity of San Francisco led to him getting a degree in sociology from UCSC.  He later spent a few years living in one of  the art districts of Seoul, Korea for a few years and traveling throughout Asia. In 1997, Leef returned to San Francisco and got swept into the Dot Com bubble and the web world, spending several years as the webmaster for Visa’s intranet. This however did not extinguish his passion for the arts and setting his own sail, and the dreams of his next career.  An unforeseen layoff in the fall of ’08 provide that kick, and he was inspired by his Buddhist practice, Burning Man and the ideas of localized, sustainable business practices, to open his own art gallery combined with a comic book shop and “Mission: Comics & Art” was born.