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How Tsutomu Nihei's Tower Dungeon, and manga legends Naoki Urasawa and Katsuhiro Otomo are fueling Absolute Batman for co-creator Nick Dragotta
Absolute Batman’s bold new style is as inspired by manga as it is by classic DC comics.
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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.
Batman is the most well-known superhero in the world — surprisingly, given how much he loves hanging out in the dark. But between his comics, TV shows, movies, games, and more, DC's Dark Knight is the hero this city/country/world/universe needs, and we have all you need to enjoy him even more:
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