Sydney Padua is an animator and cartoonist who draws a webcomic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage and the Analytical Engine.
Commenters recommend it to anyone interested in Babbage, praising the footnoted historical detail and humor, and pair it with the Plan 28 build project.
The book goes at great lengths into references and primary sources to explore both sides of this debate. Indeed, one of the stories is dedicated to whether Lady Lovelace is a fraud or not. The author also gives encouragement and instructions on how to look for primary sources yourself.
It's also a damn fun book. The characters quote boastful mike-drops that are actually found in historical record, such as "with all the steam I can command, your ladyship". I recommend you buy it. Or you can check out her stuff from her website, also chock-full of fascinating footnotes:
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/
There is an excellent webcomic called The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, that describes what would have happened if they had successfully completed the Analytical Engine and gone on to fight crime.
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/
More impressive than the comic itself is the amount of research put into it and the footnotes that go along with it. The author often takes inspiration directly from primary sources. For instance, a whole series on Babbage's strange hatred of street musicians.
For an alternative take on Ada Lovelace (the mother of programming) and her relationship with Charles Babbage (the father of computing), check out Sydney Padua's awesome graphic novel: "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage" [0]. Steampunk romance with difference engines and a guest appearance from Isembard Kingdom Brunel ("You look like you need an Engineer"). It's not as serious as the OP, but I love it, especially Babbage's "War on Error".
[0] http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/the-book/
If you are interested in the subject and also like good comics, there's an amazing book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thrilling_Adventures_of_Lovelace_and_Babbage
The Introduction:
"Lovelace– The Origin"
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/
The book also has a lot of real historical information, nicely interwoven in the comics with the footnotes and end-notes, and they are a joy to read too.
“Some guy” is John Graham-Cumming (CTO of Cloudflare) and the project website is https://www.plan28.org/ named after Babbage’s final iteration of his design.
I am sitting below a poster of Sydney Padua’s splendid cartoon of Plan 25, and her book and comics are the most entertaining way to learn a bit about Lovelace and Babbage http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/comics/
If you haven't come across it, I recommend you check out 2D-goggles [0] for what might have happened...
Sydney Padua is an animator and she's created some 3d animations of parts of the analytical engine. [1]
[0] https://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/
[1] https://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/uncategorized/the-marvellous-analytical-engine-how-it-works/