Author | Sydney Padua |
---|---|
Illustrator | Sydney Padua |
Language | English |
Subject | Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage |
Genre | Steampunk |
Publisher | Pantheon Books (US) Penguin Books (UK) |
Publication date | 21 April 2015 |
Media type | Print, hardcover |
Pages | 320 |
ISBN | 978-0-307-90827-8 |
OCLC | 1054115668 |
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer is a steampunk graphic novel written and drawn by Sydney Padua. It features Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage in an alternative universe where they have successfully built an Analytical Engine and use it to "fight crime".
The book was published simultaneously by Pantheon Books in the US and Penguin Books in the UK on 21 April 2015. [1] It has received positive reviews and awards.
The book grew out of a webcomic of the same name. [2] [3] The comic began as a single comic strip for Ada Lovelace Day in 2009, a celebration of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. [4] Disliking the fact that both Babbage and Lovelace died with their life work incomplete, Padua created a fictional ending for the strip, then found that "a lot of people saw it and thought that I was actually going to do a comic, which I had no intention of doing. But then I started thinking, 'What if I actually did the comic?' I started fooling around, and I guess I'm still fooling around with it." [5]
The setting describes an alternative historical reality [6] in which Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage have actually built an Analytical Engine and use it to "fight crime" at Queen Victoria's request. [7] Also featured in the comic is the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whom Padua has called "the Wolverine of the early Victorians". [8]
The comic is based on thorough research on the biographies of and correspondence between Babbage and Lovelace, as well as other bits of early Victoriana, which are then twisted for humorous effect. "Some of the documents are more entertaining than the actual comic. Plenty of times, I've thrown something into the comic just so I'd have an excuse to refer to some document," Padua says. [5]
The book received positive early reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews . [9] [10]
In December 2015 it was announced that, for The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, Padua would receive the biennial Neumann Prize of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, [11] which is "awarded for a book in English ... dealing with the history of mathematics and aimed at a broad audience". [12] The UK edition of the book received the 2015 British Book Design and Production Award for graphic novels. [13]
In April 2016 The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage was nominated for the Eisner Award in the Best Graphic Album–New category, and Padua was nominated in the Best Writer/Artist category. [14]
A chamber opera based on the book, with music by Elena Ruehr and libretto by Royce Vavrek, was first performed on 3–5 February 2023, by Guerilla Opera in collaboration with the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. [15] [16] The Guerilla Opera production was also presented by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Technological University on 12–15 October 2023. [17]
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, also known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.
The analytical engine was a proposed digital mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, which was a design for a simpler mechanical calculator.
Charles Babbage was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.
The Difference Engine (1990) is an alternative history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It is widely regarded as a book that helped establish the genre conventions of steampunk.
Colleen Doran is an American writer-artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee, which became a New York Times bestseller. She adapted and did the art for the short story "Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman, which also became a New York Times bestseller. Her books have received Eisner, Harvey, Bram Stoker, Locus, and International Horror Guild Awards.
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: Understanding Comics (1993), Reinventing Comics (2000), and Making Comics (2006), all of which also use the medium of comics.
The year 1843 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist. He is best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone.
The Lovelace Medal was established by the British Computer Society in 1998, and is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the understanding or advancement of computing. It is the top award in computing in the UK. Awardees deliver the Lovelace Lecture.
Ryan North is a Canadian writer and computer programmer.
The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science, usually appearing in forms like mathematics or physics. Developments in previous centuries alluded to the discipline that we now know as computer science. This progression, from mechanical inventions and mathematical theories towards modern computer concepts and machines, led to the development of a major academic field, massive technological advancement across the Western world, and the basis of a massive worldwide trade and culture.
Svetlana Chmakova is a Russian-Canadian comic book artist. She is best known for Dramacon, an original English-language (OEL) manga spanning three volumes and published in North America by Tokyopop. Her other original work includes Nightschool and Awkward for Yen Press. She has been nominated for an Eisner Award twice. Previously, she created The Adventures of CG for CosmoGIRL! magazine and the webcomic Chasing Rainbows for Girlamatic.
Faith Erin Hicks is a Canadian cartoonist and animator living in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Boom! Studios, is an American comic book and graphic novel publisher. They are headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Random House division of Penguin Random House agreed to acquire the company in July 2024.
The British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) was founded in 1971 to promote research into the history of mathematics at all levels and to further the use of the history of mathematics in education.
Events from the year 1843 in the United Kingdom.
Tom Taylor is an Australian comic book writer, playwright and screenwriter. A New York Times bestselling author, his work includes DC Comics series Injustice, DCeased, Nightwing, Superman, Suicide Squad and Marvel series All-New Wolverine, X-Men Red, Superior Iron Man and Star Wars comics.
Kathryn Moira Beaton is a Canadian comics artist best known as the creator of the comic strip Hark! A Vagrant, which ran from 2007 to 2018. Her other major works include the children's books The Princess and the Pony and King Baby, published in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The former was made into an Apple TV+ series called Pinecone & Pony released in 2022 on which Beaton worked as an executive producer. Also in 2022, Beaton released a memoir in graphic novel form, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, about her experience working in the Alberta oil sands. Publishers Weekly named Ducks one of their top ten books of the year.
Melina Sydney Padua is a graphic artist and animator based in the United Kingdom. She is the author of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage steampunk comic, and her animation work appears in several popular Hollywood films.
James Essinger is a freelance writer and British author of numerous financial and business management books, but he is better known for his non-fiction books. These include Spellbound: The Improbable Story of English Spelling and his popular science book on the history of computing, Jacquard's Web. Essinger is also the author, with Jovanka Houska, of The Mating Game, a novel set in the world of chess.