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Daniel Cooney has worked in comic art and illustration since 1997. Cooney has done all aspects of producing comic books and graphic novels -- writing, penciling, inking, coloring, lettering, and book design, all the way through pre-press for publication. A lifelong fan of comics, Cooney graduated with a BFA from New York's School of Visual Arts in 1998. His client list includes illustration/graphic design work for Rolling Stone, Sony, Tower Records, Marvel Trading Cards, and Image Comics, along with writing and illustrating his own stylish action comic thriller, Valentine, under the Red Eye Press imprint.

Cooney currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where he teaches numerous classes on-site at the Academy of Art University, writes online classes for the University, and stays busy with a variety of freelance and comic work. He lives with his ravishing and industrious mistress, Carolina, and their two quirky black cats, Shorty Do Wop and Greenly Beans.

For a complete list of Dan Cooney's work see his BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Valentine is pure genius.  Where can I get more for my fix?  Well, Valentine began with issue one in 1997 and currently has twelve issues and two trade paperbacks published. The comic books are available at a local comic shop near you, if they don't have it, please request they order it. The trade paperbacks and graphic novels I produce are available at both comic book retailers and the "non-direct" market like Amazon, Borders, and Barnes and Noble.

• Your stuff reminds me of Alias. - For the record, Valentine was published originally as a 'zine in fall of 1996 before becoming a comic book. The show Alias didn't arrive until five years later in 2001.

• Do you have a checklist of the work you've done in comics? For a full list of my work, see my bibliography

• When did you start reading comics? As early as I can remember. At first, it was superheroes, horror and science fiction. When I got into my teens I found myself reading more independent, real life stuff like Love and Rockets, American Splendor and a lot of black & white books and 'zines.

• Do you have other interests other than comic books? I teach comic book art and writing classes onsite and online for the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I collect art, old books, vinyl records, read pulp fiction, travel (when I can), get outdoors, hike, camp, bike ride, run and sleep on occasion.

• Who the hell is Valentine? Dana Valentine is a deadly female assassin with a past she can't leave behind. She's a hit woman, plain and simple, but with an identity crisis. She makes no apologies for who she is and justifies her killing by her philosophy of one less scumbag on the planet. The books I write about Valentine are more about the circumstances she finds herself in outside the assignments of being a hit woman. I like to write about people who feel real, as though these are people who you would run into on the street -- or run away from. Valentine takes away lives but will also commit selfless acts, risking her own life to save someone else's if need be.

• Do you have any other projects you're working on? There's quite a lot on my plate right now. In addition to teaching at AAU, I'm currently doing a batch of trading cards for Marvel, Indiana Jones and just finished up on Lord of the Rings. I illustrate an online comic for urbanfertilitydancer.com, spot illustrations for the novel The Grunge Operatives, a vampire western titled Blood and Dust...I'm sure I've probably left something out!

• What are some of your favorite films? In no particular order: 3:10 To Yuma, Juno, Shawshank Redemption, Dead Poets Society, Walk The Line, Bonnie and Clyde, Godfather I & II, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Sin City, The Maltese Falcon, Ed Wood, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Thirteenth Floor, Road To Perdition, Bonnie & Clyde, The Bourne Movies, Run Lola Run, X-men 1 & 2, Superman, Kill Bill, La Femme Nikita, The Professional, Dark City, Blade Runner, Star Wars, Gross Point Blank, LOTR Trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, When Harry Met Sally, Heat, Matrix, John Hughes movies (Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful), Outlaw Josey Wales, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars, Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, Bullit, American Grafitti, Grease (guilty pleasure, everybody has one!) Amelie, Blue Velvet, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Crumb, Grease, Ed Wood, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin films. These are movies that may be playing at any given moment when I'm working.

• What kind of music do you listen to when you're working or just in general? Big band, vintage jazz, ragtime, blues (americana/folk/rock), classical, film scores, live concert recordings; Dave Brubeck, Count Basie, Nina Simone, The Clash, The Pretenders, Echo & the Bunnymen, Pixies, Portishead, Depeche Mode 101 (the best!), U2, Bowie, Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Horror Pops, The White Stripes, Ramones, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. Hmmm... I'm sure more will come to mind. When you draw 10-14 hours a day, you're bound to listen to a wide variety of music.

• Favorite things to do on a day off: Go to the movies, check out a museum, go to swap meets, car shows, mountain bike, buy old vinyl records, continually fix my vintage record player, road trip, concerts big or small...always bringing my camera and sketchbook, of course. And coffee shops, lots of coffee shops!!