Cliff Chiang

Cliff Chiang is an American comic book artist. Formerly an assistant editor at DC Comics, he is now an illustrator, known for his work on Human Target,Beware the Creeper and Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre, Green Arrow/Black Canary and Wonder Woman.

Early life

Chiang graduated from Harvard College, with a joint degree in English Literature and Visual Arts.

Career

Chiang illustrated the series Green Arrow/Black Canary, under writer Judd Winick, from issues 1 - 7, although he continued to supply cover art until issue #15.

Chiang wrote an 8-part Dr. Thirteen back-up story, "Architecture & Mortality", in Tales of the Unexpected with writer Brian Azzarello.

Chiang was the artist on the New 52 Wonder Woman series, written by his previous collaborator Brian Azzarello. The first issue of the series was released in September 2011 as part of DC Comics' line-wide title relaunch.

Bibliography

Interior work

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character is a warrior princess of the Amazons (which are based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) and is known in her homeland as Princess Diana of Themyscira. When outside her homeland, she is sometimes known by the secret identity Diana Prince. She is gifted with a wide range of superhuman powers and superior combat and battle skills. She possesses an arsenal of weapons, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and (in older stories) a range of devices based on Amazon technology.

Wonder Woman was created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston. The character first appeared in All Star Comics #8 in December 1941 and first cover-dated on Sensation Comics #1, January 1942. The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986. Her depiction as a heroine fighting for justice, love, peace, and gender equality has led to Wonder Woman being widely considered a feminist icon. Created during World War II, the character was initially depicted fighting Axis military forces as well as an assortment of colorful supervillains, although over time her stories came to place greater emphasis on characters, deities, and monsters from Greek mythology. In the decades since her debut, Wonder Woman has gained a formidable cast of enemies bent on eliminating the Amazon, including classic villains such as Ares, Cheetah, Circe, Doctor Psycho, and Giganta, along with more recent adversaries such as the First Born. Wonder Woman has also regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society (from 1941) and Justice League (from 1960).

Mary Sue

A Mary Sue for female characters and Gary Stu or Marty Stu for male characters is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities. Often this character is recognized as an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment.

Origin and development of the meaning

The term "Mary Sue" comes from the name of a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale" published in her fanzine Menagerie #2. The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old"), and satirized unrealistic Star Trek fan fiction. Such characters were generally female adolescents who had romantic liaisons with established canonical adult characters, or in some cases were the younger relatives or protégées of those characters. By 1976 Menagerie's editors stated that they disliked such characters, saying:

"Mary Sue" today has changed from its original meaning and now carries a generalized, although not universal, connotation of wish-fulfillment and is commonly associated with self-insertion. True self-insertion is a literal and generally undisguised representation of the author; most characters described as "Mary Sues" are not, though they are often called "proxies" for the author. The negative connotation comes from this "wish-fulfillment" implication: the "Mary Sue" is judged as a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting.

Dan Abrams

Dan Abrams is an American television host, legal commentator, Web entrepreneur and author, former anchor of Nightline and currently the Chief Legal Affairs Anchor for ABC News. He worked as chief legal correspondent and analyst for NBC News, as General Manager of MSNBC and as an anchor for that network. He is the founder of seven web properties as well as a best-selling author whose writing regularly appears in print and online in a variety of outlets. Gotham recently named him one of the most powerful men in New York's media scene.

Early life and education

Abrams was born to a Jewish family to Floyd Abrams, an attorney.

Career

Television and broadcasting

Before MSNBC

Before joining NBC News, Abrams worked as a reporter for Court TV where he covered the OJ Simpson case, as well as the International War Crimes Tribunal from the Netherlands and the assisted-suicide trials of Dr. Jack Kevorkian from Michigan.

MSNBC and NBC News

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually formed by rock that is resistant to erosion and weathering. Sedimentary rocks most likely to form cliffs include sandstone, limestone, chalk, and dolomite. Igneous rocks such as granite and basalt also often form cliffs.

An escarpment (or scarp) is a type of cliff, formed by the movement of a geologic fault, or a landslide.

Most cliffs have some form of scree slope at their base. In arid areas or under high cliffs, these are generally exposed jumbles of fallen rock. In areas of higher moisture, a soil slope may obscure the talus. Many cliffs also feature tributary waterfalls or rock shelters. Sometimes a cliff peters out at the end of a ridge, with tea tables or other types of rock columns remaining. Coastal erosion may lead to the formation of sea cliffs along a receding coastline.