Jacob Free is named after Jacob Kurtzberg aka Jack Kirby, the creator of Scott & Barda. Funky Flashman was originally a biting satire of Stan Lee by Kirby, who felt taken advantage of by Lee. Having Kirby's Stan Lee surrogate being given the role of loving babysitter to an infant meant to be a reincarnated Jack Kirby surrogate is a simply beautiful touch. Tom King confirmed this was indeed his intention during John Suntries's superlative Word Balloon interviews with him.