Before Patricia Highsmith became a bestselling Mystery writer, penning such classics as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, she worked in comics. From 1942 to 1948, she was the only woman writer who freelanced scripts to the comics. Highsmith destroyed most of the records of her comic writing days when she moved onto fiction, making it difficult to identify exactly which pieces she wrote. Comics we can confirm were the biography comics like True Comics, It Really Happened, True Aviation, Real Life Comics, which all featured life stories of famous men and women. Subjects include Oliver Cromwell, Billy Bishop, Dr. Livingstone, Catherine the Great, Galileo, Eddie Rickenbacker and FDR.
In 1942, Highsmith answered an ad, which brought her to the bull pen of Ned Pines, where she would write two scripts a day for $55 a week. She soon turned to freelancing. She wrote scripts for Sgt. Bill King, The Black Terror, for Fawcettt: The Golden Arrow, Spy Smasher, Captain Midnight, Crisco and Jasper. She later wrote Westerns and Romance. For Timely she wrote war comics like The Destroyer and Jap-Buster Johnson.
By 1950, Highsmith was a serious writer of fiction with Strangers on a Train. It was during this time she purged her records of her years in comics. Despite this, her novels have veiled references to people she worked with and the business of comics.
None of these artists who drew her comics are known.
