ANDREA VALENTE was born in Merano, up in the Alps, and lives in Stradella, in the countryside of Lombardy.
He published his first cartoons in 1990, on the pages of the New York Times. Then he hold collaborations with the newspaper Corriere della Sera, a tv program for children with Rai, and several magazines, such as Linus, Comix and Pimpa. He also illustrated the Spanish edition of the Agenda del Lector.
In 1995 he creates the Black Sheep (la Pecora Nera www.lapecoranera.it), his most succsessful character, and since that date it finds place on scholastic agendas, tee-shirts, greeting cards and other merchandising.
In 2000 his first book: ONE YEAR AS A BLACK SHEEP, soon followed by SIGNED BY THE BLACK SHEEP and 365 GOOD REASONS FOR BEING A BLACK SHEEP AND BEING PROUD OF IT all published by Fabbri, while Salani published THE BLACK SHEEP AND OTHER DREAMS, written together with the young guests of the Jail for Youngsters of Nisida, which won the Andersen Prize 2007 for the educational project. The Blach Sheep also lend its image to other social project, with Emergency, Greenpeace France and Acra.
Fabbri also published UNDER THE DESK, a collection of short stories and Gallucci published LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, illustrated on the lyrics of the popular Italian song, and the collections of short stories I WONDER WHY, CRAZY ITALY and WHEN SANTA BECAME CLAUS. For Editoriale Scienza he wrote and illustrated, together with the astronaut Umberto Guidoni, MARTIN OVER MARS.
