The story of how Charles Babbage almost invented the computer in the 1840s, and Ada Lovelace envisaged its potential, is one of the great what-ifs in the history of science. Sydney's webcomic "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage", on which her bestselling graphic novel is based, combines extensive research with alternate-universe comic-book escapes. In this talk she tells the story of these two fascinating and brilliant eccentrics and discuss her process of primary-source research and creative transformation. She also displays her animations of how the Analytical Engine would have looked and operated, some of the first visualizations ever created of that extraordinary machine.