[...]According to Culver, Akira and other key pieces of Manga storytelling were among the major influences the creative team discussed when breaking down the look of the book.
"I'm a huge fan of Manga myself and along with Ben, Josh, and Giannis it's been a blast swapping influences," he said. "There are some more obvious visual influences like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and the like but also some less obvious influences will start to shine through once the story kicks off as well. Personally I'm reading everything from Naruto to Vagabond to the current Batman books and it's going into the stew!"
Milonogiannis added, "From the beginning, 80's/90's manga has been a big influence on Future State: Red Hood and Gotham -- and now with the series in black and white, I can really focus on trying to nail down that look with screentone and heavier inked areas. Working with colorists for a while, you eventually change your art to leave room for them to do their own work -- it's been challenging to recalibrate my eyes to work fully in black and white for Future State: Gotham."[...]