Above is another Steranko story - 'At the stroke of midnight' from Tower of Shadows #1, which was a big influence on Gene Day. Below is the splash page for MOKF #114. Elements to take notice of are the dragons, birds, phoenix, vase of liquid, leaves, moon, and flowers. Also note the traditonal chinese foreground appearance juxtaposed with a background of a modern city - The contrast of past and present is a prevalent theme in this story.
The link below is another text that gives some elements for discussion-
Orson Welles's The Trial: Film noir and the Kafkaesquehttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3709/is_200207/ai_n9089867
'The expressionist look now commonly associated with noir visual aesthetics was quickly codified and became a discernable style in the 1940s. Its influence was deepened and accelerated by a sizable group of Austro-- German expatriates who fled from Europe to Hollywood in the 1930s to escape Nazi persecution. Trained in the techniques of Weimar cinema, these political exiles brought with them a working knowledge of expressionist style well suited to the noir sensibility. Defining noir not as a genre but rather as a cinematic "mood," Schrader was one of the first to acknowledge the impact that political exiles like Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, Billy Wilder, and Rudolph Mate had on the development of the noir style. Following and reinforcing Schrader's view in their foundational essay, "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir," Janey Place and Lowell Peterson (1998) argue that the noir look is achieved by cultivating an anti-traditional photographic style. Using "low-key" visual tones instead of the conventional "high-key" lighting scheme of Hollywood realism, noir directors and their cinematographers cultivated a visual aura of mystery and danger consistent with the dark stories narrated in the film noir. '
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