The notes range from nearly insignificant details to major discrepancies and deliberate distortions. They have a self-deprecatory tone that is common in North American comics, tracing its roots to the awkwardly self-aware underground comix of the 1960s and 1970s. They also reveal Brown's process in shaping the story from conflicting sources. He acknowledges some of the more capricious details. He explains he was not committed to the conspiracy theory he presented, but included it in order to present Macdonald in a certain light: "illains are fun in a story", he said, and he was "trying to tell this tale in an engaging manner". He also included a "Major-General Thomas Bland Strange" in an 1885 meeting at which the general was not actually present. Brown explains that he included Strange because he was amused by the Major-General's name.