When Agatha Christie was living in London during World War II, she wasn't sure she was going to survive. The Blitz by the German air force had inflicted heavy damage on London's capital city, and thousands of people had died. Christie believed she might eventually be among them. 

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When the book was published, Poirot was given a front-page obituary in the New York Times — the only obituary the Times has ever run of a literary character.

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Heads and Tales

text and drawings by Jim Stovall

In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says:

"Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably – sometimes tragically, sometimes commendably, usually unintentionally – caricaturing culture. This collection careens along the gamut from rich and famous to downtrodden and obscure.  Some of them, the readers will know. Others, I would take long odds, are unheard of among the perusers of this volume. There any number of lesser knowns whose names are fleeting but whose work is durable, whether in politics, 

letters, sciences, or elsewhere. Some are masters of other media, such radio or cinema or illustration."

Jim Stovall is a former journalism professor who writes and draws obsessively and occasionally inflicts his work onto an unsuspecting and largely undeserving public.