As you can see from all the shelves I put it on, this book is a little bit of a lot of things. Very informative, well-researched, extremely creative, and humorously annotated. Warning: it's not very linear, which is good if you like that sort of thing (I do).

I was first drawn to this as I recalled Babbage from a mentioned from a LIS prof. Lady Lovelace is new to me (shame on me). It was immensely entertaining AND informative. ( )

This might be the nerdiest thing I have ever been into.

I think scholars can learn a thing or two from Padua. She has a passion for the subject that just jumps from the page and it is very infectious, also, she is hilarious. If I have just one criticism, it is that the footnotes during the comic, and the enormous notes after each story plus the historical appendicx made each story a little unhinged. It was hard to know what to read and in which order. On the other hand, this will make me read the book again at least one more time which I already look forward to. ( )

That was so much fun. Brilliant. ( )

The book was definitely worth reading, especially the extensive footnotes and addenda. The combination of cartoon with fictional elements and history was a bit confusing. ( )

Oh my goodness, read this!!
(Caveat: if you consider yourself to have an inquiring mind. If you have the teensiest interest in math or computers or history. Then read this!!)

I should start by saying I'm not into graphic novels. But this captured me completely. It's the story of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, the 19th-century duo that almost invented the computer 100 years early. (It would have been steam-powered.) But unfortunately their plans never quite came to fruition. Babbage's "Difference Engine" was only constructed as a fragment, and Ada's brilliant mathematical mind led her to write some stellar notes for software programming and then she died young.
UNTIL NOW! The cartoonist, Sydney Padua, admits to being so infatuated with these people that she couldn't stop researching them and drawing them. This giant book is the result. Sealed off in a "bubble universe" where their Analytical Engine is a reality and anything is possible, Lovelace and Babbage can have endless new adventures, assisted by their loyal footman Minion. (I particularly like when Minion starts impersonating Microsoft's much-maligned Clippy.)

This book is equal parts comic strip and supplemental material. There are footnotes and endnotes enough to keep even the geekiest happy. It's delicious!!! I've passed it on to my dad and he's glued. ( )

Excellent introduction to the difference engine, Babbage and Ada Lovelace and a really enjoyable read. The author includes historical notes and info on finding more, google books and the internet archive. ( )

Really liked it, just the sort of thing for me but not quite sure for how many others?
Things you might need to know or like to enjoy this:
Computer Programming,, i've done some.
Victorian History, check for me, i don't think this is the best introduction to victorian history some prior knowledge would be useful.
Engineering, no for me, the actual descriptions of Babbages machine were a bit hard for me to follow at times.
Comics, check for me,
Biography, check for me, sort of, i'm not a hardcore biography person and this was a perfect amount of fact. It also preferred to rely on tidbits from letters, magazines etc, Its definitely entertainment first, information second which i much prefer to a straight forward dry biography, however informative.
Mathematics, apparently a no for me, despite liking math in general some of the stuff in this went over my head.

The author also used Archive.org and googlebook scans to find some of her info which made me like this that little bit more as i love raiding those places for obscure books.

Some notes on the physical object: My edition stinks, like literally, smells like paint or turpentine, of course this wears off after a while but not the best first impression. Not sure if its the ink or paper but i was actually holding it at arms length when i started reading it.
Secondly the book is divided into comic, then footnotes below them and then additional endnotes after each chapter.
Except its really annoying if you want to refer to an endnote as you can't easily find them, especially since there is no uniform length to any of the chapters. They should have blackened the corners of the endnote pages, so they could be easily seen when flicking through the pages... hold on.. one black marker and some time later ... ok done, now MY book has black corners on all the endnote pages, which can be found super easy :D .
Note: Be careful with this, make sure to have a piece of cardboard behind the page, the black marker soaks though the paper REALLY easily. ( )

So awesomely wonderful that words fail me. Read it yourself. ( )

There are so many things to love about this quirky collection of short stories about an alternative universe where Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage complete Babbage's Analytical Engine, and then go on to have mathematical adventures. The footnotes to historical references, the random bits of maths, the references to being in 2D (done so much better than Flatland, which is a book I love as much as I hate it) ( )

I really wanted to like this book. Despite its subtitle ("the (mostly) true story of the first computer"), this graphic novel is better described as "A (mostly) true romp through Victorian mathematicians." Which isn't a bad thing! We get a nice little primer on Babbage and Lovelace's Analytical/Difference Engines, and a bunch of whimsical one-offs with historical figures that describe various mathematical functions that I still couldn't explain to you but at least now have an understanding of. Then again, in terms of actual Lovelace and Babbage things ... well, the author's notes about the relatively little time the two had to work on things, Lovelace's illness/untimely death and the general lack of publication by the two can explain the paucity of material, but then maybe don't center your book around them? ( )

Charles Babbage was a Victorian inventor who came up with very, very detailed plans for what he called the Analytical Engine: a calculating machine that really would have been nothing more or less than a computer -- a primitive, limited, and clunky computer, but a full-fledged computer nonetheless -- made out of cogwheels and powered by steam. Which is an idea that, I think, just gets cooler and weirder the more you think about it. Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace was the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron, a woman whose impressive intellect was deliberately channeled into mathematics by her mother in hopes that she wouldn't end up like her crazy poet father. She and Babbage hit it off wonderfully and formed a firm friendship and long-term collaboration on matters concerning the Analytical Engine. Where Babbage was focused on the mechanics of the device, Lovelace was more interested in its operation, and had some genuinely prophetic ideas about what machines like it might be capable of. She is sometimes described as being the first computer programmer.

They were also, apparently, really fascinating, eccentric, and colorful characters who make great material for a graphic novel. Although I'm not actually sure whether "graphic novel" is quite the right word for this book. It's a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, with, as the subtitle suggests, rather more of the latter than the former. Actually, its origin story is rather charming. The author initially just created a humorous little biography of Ada Lovelace in webcomic form. But she found the end of that story a little too depressing for the light tone of the comic: Lovelace, sadly, died young, and Babbage died frustrated and unfulfilled, having never succeeded in actually constructing his Engine. So Padua instead concluded her comic by imagining a "pocket universe" in which they were able to build the thing, after all, and use it to "have thrilling adventures and fight crime." The comic turned out to be quite popular, which was nice, but also led to people assuming she was now writing a comic about the alternate-universe adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, when really she was just making a throwaway joke. She kept insisting to people that no, she wasn't writing anything of the kind, even as she kept finding herself, well, sort of writing it. This book is the result!

I actually do think the Lovelace bio that starts it out is the best part. It's hilarious, informative, geeky, and delightful. The fictionalized adventures that follow are sometimes whimsical -- one of them features an Alice-in-Wonderland version of Lovelace falling through a looking-glass into the Engine itself -- but are mostly just little excuses to bring in other famous people of the time, many of whom were personally known to Babbage and Lovelace, often taking their dialog directly from their written works or letters, and providing lots and lots of factual footnotes. Which sounds a bit dry, and the footnotes do get a little out of hand in the first adventure -- something the author notices and ends up making a meta-joke about -- but overall it actually works surprisingly well. The humor is always cute and fun, the historical facts are genuinely interesting, and Padua is clearly so fond of these two nutty geniuses and enthused by her own research into them that it's truly infectious.

She also includes interesting quotes from some primary sources she's found at the end, as well as a section showing her own drawings of the Analytical Engine and taking us through its workings. (Well, in a simplified fashion, anyway, because it's all very dauntingly complex.)

Recommended for anyone who's interested in Lovelace and Babbage, the history of computer science, the Victorian era in general, or a bit of pleasantly nerdy humor. ( )

[Nota: è uscita la traduzione italiana, Le mirabolanti avventure di Lovelace e Babbage, tradotta dalla mia amica Marta Maria Casetti. Ma io avevo comprato un anno e mezzo fa l'edizione inglese e ho sfruttato l'occasione per toglierla dallo scaffale e leggerla]

Charles Babbage e Ada Lovelace sembrerebbero due personaggi dei fumetti, e infatti Sidney Padua aveva disegnato una breve storia per un Ada Lovelace Day. Ma da cosa nasce cosa, e alla fine è uscito fuori un libro intero. Solo che la storia reale è breve e triste. Ma Padua è fuori come un balcone, e così si è messa a creare un "pocket universe" dove l'Analytic Engine è stato effettivamente costruito e Ada non è morta giovane di cancro, ma ha continuato a lavorare con Babbage, partecipando a mirabolanti avventure dove troviamo di tutto, da Coleridge a George Eliot, da George Boole a Lewis Carroll. Ma questo non sarebbe ancora nulla: in un turbinio di note a piè di pagina e note alla fine del capitolo, Padua spiega per filo e per segno quali sono le sue fonti - molte frasi pronunciate dai protagonisti sono effettivamente loro - e giustifica i suoi anacronismi che nascono per esigenze umoristiche ma non sono mai così lontani dalla realtà da essere del tutto implausibili. Il libro insomma non è solo da gustare per i disegni, ma da leggere da cima a fondo. Imprescindibile. ( )

TL;DR Summary: I found this book amazing, inspiring, and perhaps a little magnificent. Having read it, and the author's commentary, it's easy for me to understand how the author found the subject of Ada Lovelace's life so captivating. The remainder of this review is a description of how, and why, it had such a significant impact on me when I read it.

For more than a quarter century, I recall thinking at almost all times that I disliked math. I then encountered a math teacher in college, Dr. Blaga Pauley, whose engaging and philosophical teaching style -- which felt more like a conversation about what was most intriguing about math than like formal education -- helped me realize that what I disliked so strongly was not math itself, but the way people seem to think it must be dictated and drilled. Math is, in fact, a beautiful realm of brilliant insights, elegant systems, intricate designs, and the power to create new understanding.

I was not (within myself) ready to carry on with math as a more significant pursuit on my own, yet, and a variety of circumstances conspired to keep me from getting the kind of mentorship I needed to reach that readiness. It is difficult to break free from decades of being indoctrinated in the belief that mathematics is a bureaucratic, dreary, tedious field of academic irrelevance, and other (more comfortable, at the time) interests easily distracted me from taking my education in math any further than strictly necessary for all the interests I pursued instead. Even so, the ideas around math as presented by Blaga (before she passed away) stuck with me, and led me to collect a few books for later reading -- a "later" that, until now, never came.

Along the way, I heard of this book, and someone gave it to me as a gift. Perhaps it was because I asked for it; I don't recall. Time passed, and this year (2019) I finally picked it up and read it. Reading this awoke in me a greater interest in the real-world intellectual adventures of the Countess of Lovelace (the evident originator of general-purpose programming as a field of study and perhaps even the foundation-layer of computer science) and Charles Babbage (the inventor of the Analytical Engine). More significantly for me, perhaps, is the fact this book is what seems to have finally pushed me over the precipice into a plunge into the depths of desire to really learn more about (and seek fuller understanding of) mathematics as a field of exploration rather than simple study. This book has changed my mindset again, like Blaga's instruction did almost twenty years ago, and I rather suspect that when I think back on this in a few years I will be able to say that those two events together have conspired to change my life.

I do not know whether this book can help change anyone else's life for the better, but I recommend it without reservation to anyone considering whether it is worth reading. If you hesitated to dedicate time to it before reading this review, hesitate no longer. It really was an amazing experience for me, and I hope it will be for you, too. ( )

This is a rather madcap ride through the biographies of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. It's a bit disjointed, with some short sketches and other longer narratives, some biographical detail and some flights of fantasy. The illustrations are full of life and action and it's a great way to bring the information to life. I found it a bit disjointed though, and the footnotes/endnotes a bit of a distraction breaking the flow of the book. But lots to recommend it and clearly a labour of love. ( )

So original, fresh, funny and informative. ( )

I LOVE FOOTNOTES and this book has so so many of them! And endnotes!
We start off with the actual factual story of Lovelace and Babbage, which unfortunately has a sad ending - Lovelace died young of cancer and Babbage never built either of his computing inventions, becoming known for his hatred of street music (??). Padua, with a hugely impressive zeal for a non-scholar, pulled heavily from academic writing and primary sources on Lovelace and Babbage to create an alternate universe in which they build the Analytical Engine and had hilarious adventures! With historically-accurate footnotes. Whenever a character is introduced, Padua explains in the footnotes how based in reality her depiction of them is - sometimes it's quite accurate, and sometimes it's inaccurate (mainly the reason is to improve the entertainment value of the comic). Her love of these characters, especially Babbage, is quite apparent, and it makes me love them too. I liked her Appendix A of primary sources that she especially liked; I skimmed Appendix B (the workings of the Analytical Engine) but mostly that went over my head. ( )

What a fabulous book!

A mixture of comic strip silliness, delightful anecdote and thorough research (aided by the spiritual successors to Babbage's never realised Analytical Engine) that provides the perfect introduction to the designer of the world's first computer and the author of the world's first computer science article!

This dynamic duo have to face: visits from Royalty! Funding problems! Infestations of monkeys! And more! Meet such supporting characters as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Marian Evans (better known as George Eliot) and a Leopard! Enjoy such additional delights as: extensive footnotes that take on a life of their own! Primary sources! An explanation of how the Analytical Engine was supposed to work! And an Epilogue! And more!

Seriously, read this book to laugh while you learn and wonder how history would have gone if Babbage had just completed even one of his designs...

( )

Very well researched, funny, ｐｒｉｍａｒｙ ｓｏｕｒｃｅｓ. Awesome! ( )

Utterly charming. Babbage was bonkers and Lovelace was lively. With special guest appearances by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Dodgson and others this is a delightful tale, winningly presented. ( )

Awesome first graphic novel for me. Teaching me the history of early computing (among other things) while imagining the adventures of Lovelace and Babbage as superheros. ( )

Delightful, thoroughly researched, and discombobulated. Sidney Padua lovingly draws Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage's friendship, the (theoretical) invention of the first computer by Babbage, and the first computer program by Lovelace. Both were peculiar and memorable characters, whose friendship ranged from mathematical discourse to special fondness asnd squabbles. As Lovelace died young, which would make for a short book, Padua opts to keep her and their cooperation alive in a "Pocket Universe", where they embark upon adventures addressing Victorian era problems in economy, literature, inventions and mathematics. I particularly liked the exlanations of math jokes in Alice in Wonderland - the dialogue makes a lot more sense to me now.

I thoroughly enjoyed the content, however the format was a real chore that deducted from my enjoyment a lot. The cartoons are quite silly and often contrast the dialogue which is quoted from comtemporary texts; they also contrast the immense amount of information conveyed through footnotes, endnotes and appendixes. The cartoons are large, the footnotes are small font, the endnotes are larger font, and I had to keep two bookmarks to flip between endnotes and story, which was already disjointed into cartoons and footnotes. The cartoons/footnotes are often self-referential, which lightens this a bit; but smetimes they dissolve into complicated charts and even Esher-like turns into sideways or upside down.

Padua clearly enjoyed the book, and so did I, but it would have been a lot better with a more linear story-telling style. ( )

So fun! Kind of wish there had been more to the story than there ended up being. But still, lots of fun. ( )

A nicely-drawn and informative book about these two early computing pioneers, their times and contemporaries. Part of the book is the actual history of the pair, and part is an amusing sequence of hypotheticals set in a universe where Babbage's analytical engine had actually been built. Finally there is an appendix which illustrates and explains the Engine. ( )

Had this book merely been composed of the comics we were promised on the front cover, it would have been charming enough. But where I really fell in love with this book was the NOTES. Footnote after footnote, then piles of endnotes after that, then footnotes in the appendices! Padua is clearly my kind of geek. She's not content just to present you with a clever comic, she's going to make sure that you are in on all of the jokes, prove just exactly how clever she is, and then back up nearly every single line and drawing with primary and secondary sources, leaping right into the fray of "How Important Was Ada Lovelace, Really?"

It's lovely and wonderful. I hope Padua writes more. ( )

Some might say "too many [foot]notes" of this. If you're someone who gets distracted by them, you'll have to focus yourself. Good bit of whimsy and fancy in the story and the drawing: LOTS of supporting exposition, explanation, and documentation. Could be used in a history class to talk about use of primary sources. ( )