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Absolute Batman is inspired by Batman and the creators who've worked on him over the decades, that's no doubt about that. But what might surprise you — or reaffirm the implicit feelings you've had all this time — about the series is that it's equally inspired by manga.

While series artist/co-creator Nick Dragotta does say his primary influences for Batman are Frank Miller, David Mazzuchelli, and Alex Toth, he also cites some of the most innovative storytellers of modern manga as equal influences.

“Naoki Urasawa for the emotional beats. Then just make it cool, big, yet believable,” says Dragotta in Comics! The Magazine #1. "[Katsuhiro] Otomo for action. [David] Mazzuchelli for cool. Maybe my latest fave Tsutomu Nihei. His comic Tower Dungeon is kind of an encapsulation of all of the above.”

One of Absolute Batman's earliest readers was its letterer, Clayton Cowles. When he first saw what Dragotta and series writer/creator Scott Snyder were doing, all he could see was the manga influence.

“The first thing I noticed when I started Absolute Batman was the heavy manga influence in the artwork, so I I got to work tailoring a lettering style to match using Adobe Illustrator,” Cowles adds.

He is vengeance, he is the night, he is... one of Popverse's favorite subjects. Learn how to do a Dark Knight movie marathon right with our Batman movie guide, and for the true World's Greatest Detectives out there, dive deep into the heart of Gotham City by getting to know Batman with Popverse. Here are some of our latest Batman stories:

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