The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

"The unusual story of this Victorian power-duo is what graphic artists and animator Sydney Padua explores in the immensely delightful and illuminating The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer ( public library ), itself a masterwork of combinatorial genius and a poetic analog to its subject matter — rigorously researched, it has approximately the same footnote-to-comic ratio as Lovelace’s trailblazing paper."

"With her look at the first computer, Sydney Padua transforms punch cards and little brass cogs into the stuff of legend. Her Victorian heroes are nothing if not memorable: The larger-than-life computational genius Charles Babbage, Padua writes, was a “blend of Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Toad, Don Quixote and Leonardo da Vinci.” The once-overlooked, eccentric math whiz Ada Lovelace smokes a pipe and scribbles equations. Padua’s exaggerated, loopy drawing style keeps the energy high. Her characters gasp and glower and grin; their hair ruffles in the steam."

"A graphic novel by Sydney Padua, "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage." This is an absolutely inspired creation: a cartoon story — "(Mostly) True" — about two real-life Victorian scientists who invented and described the first-ever computer. It's hilariously funny and alarmingly clever."