This Sunday Heroes celebrates the 35th Anniversary of the Charlotte MiniCon!  As part of the celebration we are honored to have artist Cliff Chiang appear as one of our featured guests.  Aside from being universally regarded as one of the nicest guys in the industry, Cliff’s also one of comics’ top illustrators.  Just take a look at DC’s new Wonder Woman series and you’ll see why.  We recently talked with Cliff about his appearance this weekend, and some of his recent work. Make sure to stop by the MiniCon this Sunday and welcome Cliff back to Charlotte!

Heroes (H):  Your collaboration with Brian Azzarello dates back to your time as an editor of 100 Bullets and your work together on DC’s excellent Doctor 13 stories.  What made Wonder Woman seem like the natural next step in your collaboration?

Cliff Chiang (CC): I’d been itching to work with Azz again ever since Doctor 13, but I had some longer projects that delayed those plans. When Azz called me about Wonder Woman, I realized it was a great opportunity to be creative and confuse people at the same time! I was in.

CC: As long as they’ll have us. We have some long term plans for the story, and I’d love to be able to see them though.

CC: We’ve got the exclusive MiniCon screenprint by me and Dustin Harbin, for a measly $10! Hopefully, I’ll get another image done for HeroesCon later this year. So much to do!

H: We’re glad you mentioned that! We’re happy that you’ll be back in Charlotte for HeroesCon this summer to help us celebrate our 30th anniversary.

Super (Fly) Mario for the What Not Blog

H: Whose idea was the What Not Blog?

CC: I think it was Reverend Dave Johnson’s brainchild. It’s inspiring to see such a diverse group of artists just messing around like that.

H: Where do you guys find the time to do these fully realized illustrations on top of your paying work?!

CC: It can be hard, but it is a lot of fun. I probably should do less-finished stuff and post more often, but sometimes I love an idea and wanna show some more care.

H: Finally, what are some of the comics that you’re most looking forward to seeing in 2012?

CC: Two things I’m looking forward to in 2012 are the conclusion to Loose Ends (I did not pay him to say that. -rico.) and the print version of Robbi Rodriguez’s Frankie Get Your Gun.

Thanks to Cliff for taking time to answer a few questions.  You can meet him and a slew of other great artists this Sunday at the 35th Anniversary of the Charlotte MiniCon!

Check out Cliff’s website and follow him on Twitter @CliffChiang