FAQ
What is this madness?
It’s a punchline. As in “Wouldn’t it be hee-larious if there was a comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage fighting crime? Thanks, I’ll be here all week!” The imaginary comic was the punchline to Lovelace: The Origin, drawn because my good buddy Suw Charman got me drunk started a Noble Enterprise called Ada Lovelace Day.
At first I didn’t have the smallest idea of it ACTUALLY being a comic, but you simply can’t read anything about Charles Babbage or Ada Lovelace without being struck by what an awesome comic they would make. Or maybe that’s just me. Various episodes started drawing themselves in my head, which led them to being drawn in actuality, usually when I was supposed to be drawing something else. This sort of thing didn’t really belong on my official blog, which is supposed to present me as a person of deep seriousness single-mindedly devoted to excellence in visual effects (which I am!!). So I started this website.. comic.. thing.
So, this is either the agonizing birth pangs, or monstrous death-throes, of a comic. I’m definitely making it up as I go along.
Why are you doing this?
No particular reason. I like history, science, comics, primary documents, and pointless non-remunerative projects. I once typed out the the entire journals of Gilbert White for no particular reason, for instance.
What’s up with Babbage’s hair?
Like most of this comic, it’s a conflation of misleading half-truths:
Why does Lovelace smoke a pipe?
Back when this was a punchline, not a comic, I doodled out the Charlies-Angels-type-thing pose with the rayguns (now a tshirt!). Originally I had Lovelace with the gun cocked upwards, but that made the composition weird; I liked the pose with the raygun down but that left an awkward blank space next to her head. So I drew in a pipe, because I don’t know about you, but when I hear ‘manic-depressive calculating machine’ I think Sherlock Holmes.
There are no photographs of Ada (there’s one you see floating around sometimes, but that’s actually her daughter, Anne… you know, the one who moved to Egypt, spoke five languages, painted gorgeous watercolours, was the first western women to cross the northern desert, and developed the modern Arabian horse… AHAHA guys, stop being so cool, people will think I’m making this up!), so I draw her as a version of Byron (which she totally was).
What are you drawing with?
I use a 12x Cintiq and Corel Painter. Private note to Painter: you know, Painter, Babbage’s hand-cranked clockwork computer could adjust leading on type. Just sayin’.
Who are you?
I’m an animator, story artist, and tiresome bore working mostly in visual effects in London. This is me giving myself mercury poisoning with a period hat, a lot of the comedy around here is probably down to that.
[...] If you are new you probably want to start with Lovelace: The Origin. You can then (if you haven’t immediately fled), continue to read the episodes/half-baked ideas/pointless ramblings chronologically by clicking on the link to the next post in the upper right of the post pages. Questions are addressed at the FAQ. [...]
You rule the Earth!
Uh, now that the dinosaurs are gone, of course.
I am enjoying your comic experiment greatly. Have you seen Kate Beaton’s work? She is a marvelously talented and interesting comic artist in Canada. There is much intersection in your work:
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=5 (The text in the green field refers to the most recent comic, not the archived pieces).
http://beatonna.livejournal.com/78525.html (Scroll down to see the comics. I don’t know why LiveJournal puts so much white space on the page).
Best wishes and may the experiment continue!
Of course! She keeps stealing my gags before I’ve thought of them!
Oddly enough, I am also Canadian. Maybe Canadians do history comics because something has to be done to make Canadian history entertaining.. the Louis Riel one is really good to:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/riel/comics.html
Have to say, I love your work. It does remind me of a lot of the early Disney work (not 2D Goggles, the stuff posted on your regular site), especially this one animator who’s name I forget. I was a devotee of his stuff between the ages of 5 and 10. Possibly even 12. Point is, first rate comics/sketches/comedic ideas/etc. etc. :)
Enjoying Lovelace and Babbage extremely, and of course, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who gets my vote for Sexiest Victorian Ever. Have you seen Drew Gardner’s “Descendents” series, which features Brunel’s great, great, great grandson? A little strange, really.
http://www.drewgardner.co.uk/
Perhaps this is a bit too hurried but… Do you plan on ever producing a published-as-in-printed version of this webcomic? I’d gladly buy a copy!
You are awesome. Your Lovelace and Babagge storys are the most genuine and most amusing pieces of illustration i saw in years. Thank you. I mean it.
I read about, I came, I saw, I looked and I read. I laughed, and then I laughed some more, I sniggered, tittered and hit link after link. But at the end of the adventure, I couldn’t find one link taking me to a page that said I could buy the ‘graphic’ novel, comic book, or even an original signed strip.
I know, however, I’m about to ask a question you’ve probably been asked by every living person on the planet, but I’m going to ask it anyway: ‘will you be publishing a graphic novel and or comic book featuring Babbage and Ada in the near future?’
Look, I have money…real honest to goodness paper money, and its burning a hole in my pocket!
I’m loving your take on Babbage, Lovelace, Brunel and their enormous computing engines. I showed one of your strips to a friend, and it was one laugh-out-loud moment after another.
A while back I had some steampunk characters I’d created and didn’t know what to do with them, and then I thought of 2dgoggles.
The result was this imaginary book cover from an Ada Lovelace story, which won a placing in a 3D graphics contest.
http://www-cache.daz3d.com/sections/galleries/artwork/310/47847.jpg
I want to thank you for the inspiration and continuing entertainment.
Epi
Stumbled across this site today and I just want to point out how amusingly creepy it is that a few weeks ago I said “Ya know, somebody needs to draw a picture of Babbage and Lovelace together with rayguns.”
So I drew it. (I also made them cats, but that’s beside the point.)
But it appears that I have been beaten to it by somebody that can draw much better than me, so it works out.
Seriously though. Creepy.
<3
Having visited the Oxford steampunk expo, and returned with a copy of B and L’s Great Exhibition Of Themselves, consider me a new and enthusiastic fan…
Here’s hoping that the same kind of folk who gave Jamie Hewlett and Peter Blegvad publishing contracts, will do the same for you soon, because I’d buy the first Babbage/Lovelace book in a flash. (Maybe you should try one of these online “pledge” sites, and publish one yourself?)
In the meantime: great stuff, and keep them coming!
Marvellous site and your drawings are exquisite, love it.
Awaiting the next issue with great anticipation.
Best
Derek Beggs
Amazing, stunning! And yes Ada really is the kind of woman who would enjoy smoking a pipe! I am also vaguely aware of a picture depicting a young woman graphic artist shown with her churchwarden pipe…… More crime fighting and pipe smoking please.
I love Ada, Babbage and Brunel. As an engineer, with godsons anda goddaughter who’re also leaning that way, I’ve just gone mad on the Brunel t-shirts.
I’d love to see them in a book, too.
I send an e-mail jusr now to the Guardian promoting Ada Lovelace Day and suggested they got in touch with you, too, as I thought it would be great if they celebrated Ada Lovelace day by publishing one of your camics, if you were willing to sell a licence or whatever to them. Hope you don’t mind me suggesting it!
These are brilliant anyway – please keep ‘em coming!