For its overseas release, to reach a larger audience, Otomo decided to color the manga and to carefully flip the pages so that they would be read from left to right, like American comics, instead of the traditional black and white artwork and right to left reading. Some of the artwork was redrawn by Otomo and his assistants to flip it, while the coloring was done by Steve Oliff at his company, Olyoptics. Akira was the first comic in the world to be colored digitally, using computers. Its release in color led to the widespread adoption of computer coloring in comics. Akira was also the first comic in the western world to be printed on slick paper with a 4 color process, much like modern American comics, which allowed for the more detailed and accurate color achieved by the use of computers to be shown, instead of the previously used newsprint with Ben Day process color. Coloring lasted from 1988 to 1994, being delayed by Otomo's work on "Steamboy", and Oliff's work in "Akira" earned him an Eisner Award in 1992.