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.

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 Entertainment.

Finally, Dan is the official artist at the 2004 E.R.B. Chain of Friends Annual Gathering in Sacramento, California and has done a number of Tarzan, John Carter, Carson Of Venus and David Innes of Pellucidar illustrations exclusively for the show.

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.