Lan Hoang Vu (a.k.a. VAL) was born and grew up in Vung Tau, Vietnam. VAL began creating political cartoons since 1987 by drawing syndicated cartoons for various newspapers and magazines nationwide in Vietnam. VAL came to the USA in 1991 at which time he stopped drawing cartoons and began a career as a graphic designer. Ten years later, however, because of the tremendous impact the September 11th Terrorist Attacks in America had on his psyche, VAL immediately picked up his pens and started to draw political cartoons again.

A graduate from the prestigious National University of Fine Art in Saigon, and from California State University in Long Beach, VAL is currently working as an Art Director at VAL Designs (www.valdesigns.com), a full service design firm based in Orange County, and stays abreast of international news by drawing daily cartoons for various publications including Viet Bao Daily News, Nguoi Viet Daily News, Viet Weekly... VAL's cartoons, usually with minimal wordings, convey multi-level of meanings depending on the perception of individual audience. His cartoons focus mostly on political events, ranging from international matters to local Vietnamese community issues.

VAL's cartoons are displayed and collected in many websites, museums, galleries, and private collections including The Peace Museum (Chicago, USA), BC Space Gallery (Laguna Beach, California, USA), Collection of Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago City (USA), Collection of Ms. Kim Phuc - "The Girl in the Picture" - from Kim Foundation (USA), Cartoon Museum of East Europe (Ploiesti, Romania), Collection of Scientist Colin Pillinger, Head of Planetary and Space Sciences, Open University (UK), just to name a few. VAL has also been working with The New York Times Syndicate.