In Rowson's version he mimics Eliot in the sense that his comic book is part satirical, it is pessimistic, and it is told in fragments, as well. But the two literary works could hardly be farther apart in substance, as Rowson parodies a crime novel's trashy tone -- parodying noted pulp crime writer Raymond Chandler more than Eliot or Eliot's poem -- and it shows in his edgy comic drawings that there is more than one "waste land" in the world.

Rowson had some problems in getting his lawyers to sign off on his parodies of Eliot's lines; for example, in Eliot's "The Fire Sermon," line 205, the poet writes "Jug jug jug jug…" and originally Rowson had his hero, Chris Marlowe ("Philip Marlowe" was a Chandler character ) walking past six jugs in the British Museum (which he uses in his comic illustrations). So instead of the six "jug[s]…"...
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