The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua

This is the (mostly) true story of the world's first computer. British inventor Charles Babbage designed the "Difference Engine," the earliest predecessor to modern computers. In turn, his friend and confidant, Ada Lovelace, illegitimate daughter of Lord Byron, wrote the world's first computer program for it. In reality, sadly, the Difference Engine was never built. The design and the programming were technically correct, but theoretical. But who cares about reality? It's far more fun to imagine that they did build it, and then used it to further their rollicking steampunk adventures!

This graphic novel, with its charming black-and-white art, imagines what kinds of adventures they might have gone on, which is delightful on its own, but the truly amazing part is that the whole book is littered with footnotes and full-page spreads about the real Lovelace and Babbage. The author did a huge amount of original research about the oft-overlooked pair, and the way she swirls fact with fiction is masterful. If you're a fan of biography and/or steampunk, you'll want to give this a look.