The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua is at number 1 in our Top Ten Graphic Novels.
The graphic novel is a Georgian adventure set in a steam-punk alternative reality yet with actual people from history as the protagonists. The book plays with the idea of what would have happened if Charles Babbage had succeeded in making the first computer function.
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815 to 1852) was an English mathematician who worked on the early mechanical computer—the Difference Engine. She is recognised as the inventor of the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. She is now regarded as the first computer programmer.
Charles Babbage (1791 to 1871) A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer. Babbage is best remembered for originating the concept of a programmable computer in 1822. The Difference Engine was never completed.
Sydney Padua, creator of the graphic novel, is an animator and visual effects artist, usually employed in making monsters for the movies. She started drawing comics by accident with the webcomic 2D Goggles or The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. Originally from the Canadian prairie, she now lives in London with her husband.
Pablo, a graphic biography about the early life of Pablo Picasso is at 4 and Neurocomic re-appears after some months at 10.
1 | The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage
Sydney Padua (Penguin Books)
The (mostly) true steam-punk story of the first computer. Ada Lovelace the mathematician daughter of Lord Byron, and Charles Babbage inventor of the Difference Engine a calculating machine that was never finished—but what if things had been different?
2 | Nemo: River of Ghosts
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill (Knockabout)
The Pirate Queen is 80 years old and losing her grasp on reality. Pursuing shadows from her past – or imagination? – she embarks on a voyage down the Amazon—along a river of ghosts—in an attempt to lay to rest spectres of old.
3 | The Sculptor
Scott McCloud (Selfmadehero)
Thanks to a deal with Death, David Smith, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands, but the deal is he now has only 200 days to live.
4 | Pablo
Julie Birmant & Clement Ouberie (Art Masters-SelfMadeHero)
The early life of Pablo Picasso from penury to the advent of Modern Art and his turbulent romances along the way.
5 | Building Stories
Chris Ware ( Jonathan Cape)
Stories of the inhabitants of a three-flat Chicago apartment house: told in a remarkable format
6 | Seconds
Bryan Lee O’Malley (Selfmadehero)
A talented young chef has plans to open a second restaurant but things start to go amiss. Much anticipated stand-alone graphic novel from the creator of Scott Pilgrim.
7 | The Secret Service: Kingsman
Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (Titan Books)
When Uncle Jack gets his nephew, Gary, out of trouble, their lives intersect in a way neither of them can foresee.
8 | The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances
(Andrews McMeel Publishing)
Matthew Inman’s, AKA The Oatmeal, anthology of comics and stories about suffering, gluttony and jogging.
9 | Here
Richard McGuire (Hamish Hamilton)
Here is the story of a corner of a room and of the events that have occurred in that space over the course of hundreds of thousands of years.
10 | Neurocomic
Matteo Farinela and Hana Ros (NoBrow)
Graphic Documentary or non-fiction. An introduction to the complexities of the brain made palatable through comics. Produced in association with the Wellcome Trust, the largest medical charity in the world.
Lurking below the Top 10 are The Metabarons Alejandro Jodorowsky and Juan Giminez; Dredd: Urban Warfare by Arthur Wyatt, Matt Smith , Henry Flint, Paul Davidson , Chris Blythe; and The VIZ Annual: The Dutch Oven.
The writer’s name or names are shown first, and then the comics illustrator’s name is shown second. The publisher’s name is in brackets.
The search was done on 30 April 2015 at 16:10 hrs.
The Top 10 includes original graphic novels, or original graphic short-story anthologies.
The story must be complete, but can be complete in no more than three volumes.
All graphic novels are published after 1st January 2010. They should not be reprints of older works.
We have accepted that graphic novels that appear for the first time in the English language can be seen as new to the market, even if they are older works, provided they are published within the period.
The Top 10 does not include adaptations, illustrated books, cartoon-books, childrens’ books, film tie-ins, spin offs or part works or the superhero genre.
It does not include graphic novels that are listed as available on pre-order but not actually published.
The search is filtered by “New and Popular”, for the words “Graphic Novels”.
It is not taken from the Bestsellers listing for Comics & Graphic Novels.
Not only does a search for “graphic novels” generate a listing of every sort of comic book, but also includes illustrated childrens’ books, and sometimes porn, (back in evidence), and tie-in box-sets.
It accurately shows the sales position in the listing at the time of the search.