Dan Panosian

Early life

Dan Panosian was born in Cleveland, Ohio to artistic parents.. He is of Armenian descent

Comics

At age 14, Panosian sent an art submission to Marvel Comics, which responded with encouragement. Years later he showcased his work at the New York Comic Convention, where noted comic book artists Neal Adams and Walt Simonson took notice. Adams offered him a position at his ad agency Continuity Graphics and Simonson called his editor, Ralph Macchio, at Marvel Comics. Panosian was soon working for both companies. Upon entering the Marvel offices for the first time he was greeted by the same Submissions Editor, Len Kaminski, who had corresponded with the young Panosian years earlier. On his office wall was a "thank you" illustration from the 14-year-old Dan Panosian.

After working on back-up features for Captain America, Batman, Spider-Man and Thor, Panosian's work caught the eye of the artistic teams working on the X-Men line of comic books where he became a regular inker.

When Marvel's top artistic talents left to form Image Comics he was asked to join them and began illustrating comics that often sold close to a million copies each month, sometimes more.

Panosian has also done work for Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Studios, and Dynamite Entertainment. He also illustrates a series of graphic novels for Le Lombard/Darguad called John Tiffany.

Being a descendant of survivors from the Armenian Genocide, Panosian also contributed to a graphic novel about the Armenian genocide called Operation Nemesis: A Story of Genocide & Revenge

Advertising, film and game design

Panosian founded Dan Panosian, Inc., through which he began doing advertising work.

He was soon also working with movie and commercial studios providing design and storyboard artwork. Panosian also branched out into book and magazine illustration, apparel lines, and toy design work.

He was the lead designer on a DreamWorks video game about animals that embody the spirit of Kung-Fu. The game caught the attention of Steven Spielberg and became the springboard for the blockbuster movie, Kung-Fu Panda. Shortly after, Dan was doing the lead design work for the best-selling video game, Duke Nukem.

Panosian illustrated one of Byron Preiss’s first CD-ROM comic books, The Suit.

In 2006, Teshkeel Media Group contacted Panosian to design the first original characters for the controversial comic book, The 99, created by Dr Naif Al-Mutawa. The first of five planned 99-based theme parks opened in Kuwait in March 2009. An animated series has been produced and Teshkeel signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Endemol to produce the series.

Personal life

Panosian, his wife and their son live in Los Angeles. Panosian is of Armenian descent

Awards

Best-of-Show Addy Award for his work on the DSL ad campaign: Jack Flash. In 2011, Panosian was the Keynote Speaker for the 2011 Inkwell Awards Awards Ceremony at HeroesCon.

Marvel Comics

Image Comics

Other