This cover is a homage to Dave McKean's Hellblazer covers from the late 1980s.
Credits include "with thanks to Laura DePuy."
The attendees at the funeral are homages to the 1980s DC Vertigo line. They include: the Sandman, Death, Black Orchid, Animal Man, The Writer (Grant Morrison), Swamp Thing, the Demon, the Doom Patrol, the Metal Men (not a Vertigo book), the Ragman, Shade, the Changing Man, and other unidentified mourners. Jack Carter is also a homage to John Constantine, another DC Vertigo character.