Dan Fraga is a comic book artist, storyboard artist, concept artist, and animation and film director originally from Martinez, California. He also hosts a Youtube show called, "Couchdoodles Show". Immediately after high school, he was hired to work as in illustrator for Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios; one of the founding partner studios that made up Image Comics. Dan was one of the youngest creators to be a part of the beginnings of Image Comics. He worked in the comic book industry for many years, and worked on titles such as Spider-Man, Bloodstrike, Black Flag, Kid Supreme, Superman, Black Panther, Witchblade, and Wolverine. He has also worked in film and animation, most famously as the director of the Ricky Gervais Show. He also worked as an animation director for Mattel and Monster High. His storyboard credits include movies such as Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Transporter 2. On March 27, 2020, Fraga declared himself to be a member of Comicsgate, a collective of fans and comic book creators, who argue that comic books should be apolitical and who claim the largest comic book publishers made drastic changes to long standing characters in order to pander to progressive political interests. Fraga later made a public statement on his personal Facebook page, wherein he decried any negative perception of the group and made clear his understanding of Comicsgate's views and his alignment with them.
Career
Dan Fraga began his career in the entertainment field as a comic book artist. He has worked on many comics like Spider-Man, Wolverine and Bloodstrike. He has also worked as a storyboard artist. Some of his career highlights include working on storyboards for Hershey's, Victoria's Secret, and music videos for top artist Justin Timberlake and also Beyoncé. During his time as a storyboard artist, Dan took on several other responsibilities including set design, visual effects supervision and 2nd unit directing.
Comic books
Black Flag is a fictional superhero team and comic book series originally written and illustrated by Dan Fraga. It was published by Maximum Press and one preview edition by Image Comics. The comic features an organized para-military styled team of characters composed of a former military Landstorm pilot, a master of mysticism, a billionaire heiress, an eight foot talking purple gorilla, a dimension hopping shapeshifting alien revolutionary, and a boy who can make fantasy a reality with the snap of his fingers.
Television
Fraga made his directing debut in 2009 on the MTV show The Hard Times of RJ Berger handling the animation duties for the show. There were two seasons about a 15-year-old unpopular RJ Berger who becomes infamous after an embarrassing incident. Each episode featured live action intermixed with different styles of animation. He directed the second and third season of the HBO seriesThe Ricky Gervais Show which were voiced by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. The series was an animated version of The Ricky Gervais Show using audio from previously recorded live radio shows, podcasts and audiobooks. In 2018, Dan moved to Atlanta to work as the storyboard artist on the CW's Legacies and DC's Doom Patrol.
Web comic
The Grave, a web comic published a panel every day for a year, was Fraga project that started in January 2013, after a long absence from comics.
As far as the last thing I worked on in comics that was in print, that was Black Panther #50 which came out in August of 2002. It's been 13 and 1/2 years.
The Grave follows a group of kids on a camping trip find a grave with a fully clothed skeleton and a cigar box containing seven items. The boys figure out the life of the person behind the grave using clues from the items.
The Grave is about the lessons in life that we're supposed to learn, it's about transformation within ourselves, and ultimately human nature.
