Born in Rochester, New York, January 10th, 1966, Dan was introduced to the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies by his step-dad at an early age and grew up with the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. At age 11, Dan saved up his allowance and bought the Ballantine Frank Frazetta art books. It was then he knew, someday he would be an artist.
In High School, Dan received a number of awards for his artistic endeavors. He was a cartoonist for his High School newspaper and chief illustrator for the school's literary magazine. In college, Dan received dual degrees in Psychophysiology and Fine Art, graduating second in his class, Salutatorian. He then went on to pursue a career as a research scientist with the National Institute of Health, while always working part-time as a freelance artist or showing his work at local art galleries. It wasn't until his late 20's that Dan began to aggressively pursue a career in illustration, landing his first major comic book assignment as penciller and inker on the Razor series.
Following his stint on Razor, Dan went on to work on various comic book related projects, including, the BattleStar Galactica series, the First Wave series for Sci-Fi Channel and others. In recent years he has also done many trading card illustrations for projects like Witch Blade, Top Cow Universe, Lexx , Crow, Vampirella and a host of others.
Despite working on a number of 'For-Hire' projects, it would be his creator-owned Harpy: Prize of the Overlord mini- series that would earn Dan Parsons his widest audience. Written and illustrated by Dan, Harpy and Savage Planet hark back to the pulp adventure books of the early 20th Century. While Harpy has more of a horror edge, Savage Planet, Dan's most recent creation is the artist's homage to the classic Edgar Rice Burrough's style stories that so inspired him as a child. It would be while promoting the release of his E.R.B. inspired, Savage Planet series at the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con that he would be noticed and hired to work on perhaps the greatest tribute to pulp Sci-Fi Fantasy adventure, Star Wars!
Dan is currently a regular inker/artist on the Star Wars comic book titles for Dark Horse/Lucas Film, and continues to work on his creator-owned and other projects. He is nearing completion of the 3rd installment in the Savage Planet saga, Secrets of the Empress, and is launching a new Harpy series later this year. Both books are to be published by Amryl Ent.
Dan Parsons has a great love and appreciation for a vast number of comic artists, illustrators and classical artists. There are, however, artists whose influence he finds inescapable. He sites some central Comic Art related influences as being: Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Barry W. Smith, John Buscema, and the Argentinian artist Jose Luis Salinas. For his painting, Dan feels most indebted to the neoclassical painters of the 19th Century such as Frederick Leighton, John Waterhouse, and the French Neo-Classical painters like Jacques-Louis David, William Bouguereau, and Ingres.
Artwork Examples*
Slave Leia by Parsons
Owner: Pete Marshall
Dan Parsons - Wonder Woman
Owner: Joel Thingvall GALLERY OF WONDER WOMAN ART
Dan Parsons Warrior
Owner: Robert Plunkett
Parsons, Dan -- Red Sonja
Owner: Rob L
* These examples are courtesy of Comicartfans.
