The Artist_s Magazine 2016-03__

46 http://www.artistsmagazine.com

Association Michael L. Printz Award, a

NationalBookAwardinalistandabookthat

has more than 250,000 copies in print (see

illustration, page 45).

Sydney Padua, author of the highly

acclaimed graphic novelhe hrilling Adventures

of Lovelace and Babbage: he (Mostly) True Story

of the First Computer,didn’tevensetouttomake

a graphic novel—she credits peer pressure for

ned. “It was supposed to

biography of Ada for Ada

Day, a women-in-tech

stival,” says Padua. “At

end of Ada’s real-life story,

e dies, and there’s no giant

eam-powered computer

as there is in the novel),

so it’s a bit of a downer. I

put in this joke ending, a

single panel with the char-

cters in fabulous outits

hting crime (see illustration,

p g 44).Itwasjustajoke!hen

itwentabitviralontheInternetandalotof

people interpreted it as a webcomic. Dan Frank

at Pantheon came across it online and asked if I

wanted to do a book.”

what happen

bealittle

Lovelace

online fes

thee

she

st

(

s

ac

igh

page 4

ABOVE:Lovelace and

Babbage with soft-

ware and hardware,

steampunk style.

BELOW:Lovelace

meets poet Elizabeth

Browning in Padua’s

story,The Organist.

“I work entirely digi-

tally in Photoshop

on a Wacom Cintiq

21UX, but I do a

lot of doodling

on paper to get

ideas out. (Having

spent 10 years

doing hand-drawn

animation was

a tremendous

gift. There’s no

better training

in making poses

feel alive, expres-

sive and elastic.) I

like bog-standard

copier paper and

Prismacolor Col-

Erase blue pencils.”

Sydney Padua ©Sydney Padua

©Sydney Padua