by Mike Favila, Editor and Emil Favila, Reporter

We got a chance to speak with Clay Mann, the artist of Valiant’s relaunch of Ninjak.  I had a lot of fun reading one of his Gambit story arcs with James Asmus, so when I heard that he had moved over to Valiant, I definitely wanted to check it out.  Hilariously enough, he asked that we not post his headshot, but instead focus on his awesome Tom Selleck shirt.  Unfortunately, I was a little dazed by the magnificent mustache, and accidentally said “Nice Burt shirt”.  After he forgave us, this is the result:

ComicsOnline: So what are you working on right now?

Clay Mann: Ninjak.

CO: That’s with Matt Kindt right?

CM: Yep.

CO: So how are you finding it so far?

CM: I’m enjoying it a lot.

CO: What issue have you worked up to that you are releasing?

CM: We’re on 5 right now. I don’t know if I can stay after that.

CO: And #2 is out right now right?

CM: #2 just came out.

CO: #2 is really good.  I was really impressed by everything in it.  I was never really into Ninjak that much but did you have a thing before this. Now, did you like Ninjak before this?

CM: I mean I know who he was (Ninjak) and I enjoyed Quesada’s (Joe) covers quite a bit back in the day.  But I never
bought any Valiant comics, but i was familiar with the character sort of. Visually anyway.

CO: Right, right. Good stuff. So are you reading anybody else right now?

CM: I buy comics for pictures and hope I get to read them, and I never do.

CO: So what events are you coming up to after this?

CM: New York Special Edition is my next one and after that I get a break for a while so I can draw.

CO: Now how did you link up with Matt Kindt?

CM: Just Valiant put us together.

CO: Now do you have any other stuff in the pipeline for Valiant or is Ninjak your main title?

CM: As far as I know it’s just Ninjak right now and some covers here and there.  I’m enjoying Ninjak.  I don’t really
like to jump around, so I’d like to stay on as long as I’m at Valiant.  At Marvel, it’s like musical chairs on every title and that’s one of the reasons I was just kind of over it.  I don’t like moving around every 3 issues.

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