Short biography focusing on Highsmith's adult life from working on comics to publishing her first novel, and later her lesbian novel "The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan"; depicting her love of cats, cigarettes, and snails. I was enlightened how many similarities this biography had with the story "Carol". Also her friendship with Stan Lee. Black, white orange and peach colouration throughout the brilliant expressive illustrations. ( )

Highsmith Begins
Review of the Abrams ComicArts SURELY hardcover (April 19, 2022)

We'll go out west, we'll, we'll, we'll start over someplace fresh. I'll find a way to sell Strangers on a Train and we'll live off of that.
I can't.
We'll leave right now.
Patricia. I can't. Please. I can't let myself imagine that future.
Don't leave me alone again.
I always admired what a strange girl you are, Pat. Flung out of space. - an imagined break-up dialogue (in the graphic novel) between Patricia Highsmith and her early lover Virginia Kent Catherwood, from which she borrowed elements for The Price of Salt (1952).

As the title states, and as writer Grace Ellis confirms in her introduction, this story is "inspired" by the early life of Patricia Highsmith when she earned a living as a comic book writer* in New York City, while also taking various temporary jobs such as a Bloomingdale's store clerk in order to make ends meet. Elements have to be imagined and fictionalized for drama's sake but none of this feels inappropriate or too much of a stretch. Illustrator Hannah Templer does an excellent job with both the through story panels and the sidelines portraying Highsmith's inner thoughts (often imaginings for her future novels).

See sample at https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale_960_no_scale/public/flungouto...
A sample 2 page spread from 'Flung Out of Space'. Image sourced from an interview with the SURELY imprint founder Mariko Tamaki at Syfy.com.

An example of bending the truth occurs in an imagined dialogue about the future publication of Highsmith's Carol, her gay positive novel which was eventually published as The Price of Salt:

However, in order to get this into print, not to mention to avoid attention from the wrong people more generally, (sigh) we'll have to publish it as a pulp paperback. That's why you can't title it Carol. It won't sell a pulp book. It's not raw enough. It's too literary.

Although Bantam Books did publish a pulp paperback edition in 1953, the first publication from Coward McCann in 1952 was as an actual hardcover, albeit with the title change and under a pseudonym. So the graphic novel takes liberties with the real-life story for dramatic story-telling effect.

See hardcover here: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/...
See paperback here: https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/175/412/1361412175.0.m.jpg
First edition covers for 'The Price of Salt', the 1952 Coward McCann hardcover (sourced from Goodreads) and the 1953 pulp Bantam Books paperback (sourced from biblio.co.uk. Both published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan.

Flung Out of Space was an excellent imagined background story of Patricia Highsmith's early loves and career as she wrote pulp comics and dreamed of becoming a literary author, in which she eventually succeeded with Strangers on a Train (1950) and The Price of Salt 1952).

Footnote, Trivia and Links
* An uncredited Highsmith wrote for the now little known Black Terror comics and also for Stan Lee's early Timely Comics, before the latter went on to become the Marvel Comics imprint. Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in Flung Out of Space.

Illustrator Hannah Templer has a portfolio of their work on Flung Out of Space at their webpage, which includes panels from the final book as well as draft sketches for characters, facial expressions, hands, costumes, etc. You can see it here.

The Abrams ComicArts SURELY imprint is "a new line of graphic novels curated by the bestselling Eisner Award-winning author Mariko Tamaki, dedicated to expanding the presence of LGBTQIA creators and content in the comics world." Read more about SURELY here. ( )

I knew nothing about her or the book. The narrative never caught my interest. The artwork was fine. I didn't hate it. It was just there. ( )

I knew very little about the life of Patricia Highsmith, other than, that she was gay and authored some terrific books. This excellent illustrated biography filled me in. It turns out she was a very complex, unpleasant person, along with being immensely talented. She was also a heavy drinker and smoker. It covers her early years, writing comics, which she abhorred, and this led to writing Strangers on a Train and her landmark lesbian novel The Price of Salt, later titled Carol. I am sure there are much more detailed bios about Highsmith out there but if you want a condensed version, I highly recommend this graphic novel. ( )

I didn't much like Patricia Highsmith's Carol (a/k/a The Price of Salt) when I read it in December of last year, but at least now I'm very glad I did read it so as to better appreciate this amazing fictionalized account of the book's creation.

In the late 1940s, Highsmith is begrudgingly writing comic book stories for Standard Comics, publisher of Black Terror, as she sends Strangers on a Train off to her agent to shop for publication. She dreams of day when she can ditch comics and just write real books, "good books." Due to self-loathing from the homophobia of the time, she also dreams of ditching the sexual attraction she has for women, seeking the help of psychoanalysts to make her heterosexual. Of course, psychoanalysis is expensive so she seeks extra work from Timely Comics -- leading to a bizarre but true special appearance by Stan Lee -- and as a clerk in the toy department at Bloomingdale's, which is going to trip some alerts for anyone familiar with Carol.

What drew me into the book was the characterization of Highsmith as an angry and bitter jackass who is self-destructive and hateful to those around her but simultaneously rightfully troubled and creative as hell. It reminds me of some of my favorite movies: Amadeus, The Doors, and most pertinently Professor Marsden and the Wonder Women. She blazes through life, leaving scorched earth behind her.

This may not be the way it actually happened, but it's so well told, it's how I hope it did happen. ( )