Despite the heavy tone, humor is prominent. The work is conscious of its own creation—Green's drawing of it frames the narrative proper and there are constant reminders of it throughout. Green patterned the opening after those featuring the Crypt-Keeper in EC Comics' "Tales from the Crypt" series from the 1950s. Green used the adult Binky as the narrator of the captions and as a way to tie together the past and present timeframes. There is a disconnect in that the narrator refers to his younger self as "he". Other references to comics include a "Sinstopper's Guidebook", which alludes to Dick Tracy's "Crimestopper's Textbook" and a cartoon by Robert Crumb in the background.