The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage- BOOK!

This week (well, last week) marks the three-year anniversary of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

I hardly know whether it feels as though I’ve been drawing these forever, or if it’s impossible that I’ve been drawing them so long. What started as a punchline to a one-shot comic– hey, wouldn’t it be hilarious if there was a comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage fighting crime? –has evolved into… well, a really really long punchline. With footnotes!

Now it my great pleasure to announce that this humble comic has been elevated to the PANTHEON one might say, actually, one would definitely say, because Pantheon Books has heard your pleas (a lot more effectively than I have it seems) and we are going to do Lovelace and Babbage: The Papery Thing with Ink On!

Pantheon is the legendary publisher of Very Important Graphic Novels Maus, Persepolis, and Habibi, so, you know, NO PRESSURE. As you may imagine I’ve spent the last couple of months alternating between lurking in Gosh Comics muttering, “Do you have any idea who I am?” and hiding under the bed. Not to mention, quivering with the need to tell someone!

Fair warning: if you start queuing now outside your local bookstore bring a lot of jerky and evaporated soup as it’s going to take me a year of hard drawing to get this thing done! Now I know what you’re asking yourself: ‘What does this mean for ME, the long-suffering 2dgoggles Comics Consumer, the very incarnation of Patience on a Monument? Have I not gone without Lovelace and Babbage LONG ENOUGH??”

FEAR NOT Citizens! Mine has not been the blank, barren silence of the indolent layabout, but rather the expectant, the pregnant silence of Feverish Labour behind the scenes!

USER EXPERIENCE, my bells-and-whistles experimental extravaganza has endured some delay, as I was in the throes of negotiating with Pantheon. As it turns out they are awesome and totally cool with me putting it up here for your enjoyment. As a great deal of it is drawn already expect a sudden sharp shocking increase in the usual pace of things around here. So stand by for that!

Poor Vampire Poets, of which I am so very very fond, continues to be under a Mysterious Curse and will have to endure another several months in the coffin, I’m afraid.

Anyways..

I would like to thank all you wonderful readers for being so supportive of this odd comic-shaped pocket universe. I was not setting out to do a graphic novel; as far as I can recall, I don’t think I was setting out to do anything but enjoy myself, advance my craft, and avoid working on the stuff I was supposed to be working on. It has cost me much labour and not a little stress but your kind comments, enthusiasm, and patience have kept me doodling away. Lovelace and Babbage have not only been excellent company themselves, they have been my means of introduction to so many wonderful, fascinating people. So thank you all! and many many more comics soon!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

71 Comments

  1. Andy Grabiec on October 13, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    I JUST FINISHED READING THIS BOOK !
    …returned it to the library. EXCELLENT. A new vision of science. I even went back and read the first third, with new insight. EXCELLENT !

  2. Anna Martin on February 28, 2014 at 5:44 pm
  3. […] Padua’s Lovelace & Babbage before now, but it’s great to be able to report that Padua has recently announced that she’s got herself one of those book deals with one of those book publishers: “What started as a punchline to a one-shot comic– hey, […]

  4. Robert Heterodyne on August 25, 2012 at 1:50 pm

    Happy Day! I just found your site and love the comic. Congratulations on the publishing! I look forward to it with a strange kind of glee.

  5. Geis on July 30, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    Why hasn’t anyone made an offer on the movie rights? Fools.

  6. mary on July 25, 2012 at 8:59 pm

    AWESOME! (jumps up and down silently in chair, if you can picture that.) Now I am going to tweet this. Oh, and well deserved, btw.

  7. Joe on May 18, 2012 at 12:18 am

    I will be delighted to purchase the book, and I eagerly await the sudden sharp shocking increase.

  8. Elizabeth on May 17, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    To quote Pres. Van Buren (in L&B vs. The Economy): “OMG!”
    I’m looking forward to seeing the User Experience comics, and the rest when it’s ready. :D

  9. Amanda S on May 13, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    YES! *dances away in her room like an idiot* Thank you for takign the tiem end energy to make a physical copy! Thank you for respecting your fans who aren’t electronically nclined and would rather see your wonderful stories on a real shelf! Now I’m off to tell my e-book hating friends and e-book-not-minding-but-prefering-regular-books friends that we have something to keep their eyes and ears open for from the great Sydney Padua. Now everyone’s got something to look forward too! WAHOO!

    • Amanda S on May 13, 2012 at 7:25 pm

      And see, I’m so excited I didn’t bother to proofread my comment and check for spelling erros. And I ALWAYS DO THAT.

  10. chicgeek on May 7, 2012 at 6:19 am

    I am delighted at the good news! So we have to wait for vampire poets. We’ll survive. This is your hard work put up here for our entertainment. And I am so glad you decided to share it with us. Complaining would be churlish, indeed! I do look forward to thrusting money at the bookseller when the paper and ink is unveiled before the general public, and I shall look forward to whatever you can post in the meantime.
    Again, my heartiest felicitations! Or, WHOO HOO!!

  11. Nur on May 6, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    I’d buy this comic. Twice. In fact I’m willing to give you money for it _right now_. Thanks for drawing it for us!

    • Kaazz on May 8, 2012 at 12:40 am

      Since I’m sure Sydney is too nice to say it, I will: there’s a ‘Donate’ button right up there in the right-hand column. I’ve clicked on it and it works just fine. :-)

      • Nur Hussein on June 8, 2012 at 2:44 pm

        Oh hey, that’s right! Sorry I didn’t notice it. It worked for me too. :)



  12. Alexandra on May 4, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Another avid reader from Quebec who cannot wait to buy and read the paper version(s), having followed along here, and even paid and downloaded the iPad stories. I love your work, and glad to see it getting a possibly wider audience in print. The book, not the readership, I kind of like being corporeal.

  13. =Tamar on May 2, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    So… are we eventually going to see User Experience here on the website? I don’t do Twitter, and waiting six months to a year for more Vampire Poets is going be tedious.

    • sydney on May 3, 2012 at 3:52 pm

      Yep, User Experience is going to be serialised here starting in a couple of weeks. Really sorry about Vampire Poets :_(= (weeping vampire).. it’s just more comics than I can handle right now..

  14. Elise on May 2, 2012 at 1:51 am

    Hellooo from Quebec! I have a ball reading Lovelace & Babbage. Congratulations for everything!! I will happily point to the book and tell my daughter that I got to watch you draw when I was just a bit older than her, when you were forced into babysitting me. Rest assured, your enthusiasm for all things interesting was and is catching, and it’s great to know my daughter will be able to read about Lovelace and Babbage herself one day, and find it fun. Unlike reading about Canadian History, which activity as a homeschooling parent I will soon have to enforce. How does “Lovelace and Babbage Visit New France” sound? No? You’re kidding, right??? :)

    All the best,
    Elise

  15. Vryce on May 2, 2012 at 12:43 am

    I remember thinking that Habibi’s footnotes weren’t nearly as energetic as yours. Congratulations, and thank you for the delightful language that is this announcement post. It made me smile quite a bit.

  16. janeite42 on May 1, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    Marvelous news! Congratulations!

Leave a Comment