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GOTB Comics

Free Comics Library

Read every finished GOTB comic free, right here: power, water, roads, transit, airports, fiber and the people who build it. Pick your reader level.

These are free sample editions. The full stories are much longer. Want a printed copy? Order the print edition (printing costs apply).

Free to share and adapt for non-commercial use.

GOTB Consulting comics are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

You may copy, print, share, translate and adapt these comics for classrooms, libraries and other non-commercial uses, as long as you credit “GOTB Consulting, LLC (gotbconsulting.com)”, link to the license and say if you made changes. Commercial use requires written permission: mbrown@gotbconsulting.com.

Art is AI-generated; characters are fictional. Scripts and facts are written and checked by people; sources are listed with each issue. The GOTB name and logo are not covered by this license.

AI-generated art, fictional characters

1Kids editions (Ages 6 to 9)

Data Centers series

2Teen editions (Ages 10 to 15)

Data Centers series

3Adult editions (Grown-ups / prestige edition)

Data Centers series

4AI Tokens

One-page comic: The Fuel That Runs AI, Part 1. Eight panels explain AI tokens and the data centers that run them.

The Fuel That Runs AI, Part 1

Teen comic short · Ages 10 to 15 · one page, 8 panels · free

AI-generated art, fictional characters

Open full size (zoom in)

Watch the motion comic

45 seconds · no sound · AI-generated art, fictional characters

5The Cold Is Not Free

Cover of the comic The Cold Is Not Free: Gridline and Undertow stand on a solar wing in orbit above Earth, a red-hot radiator at their feet

The Cold Is Not Free

Infrastructure Guard saga short · cover + 8 panels · free

AI-generated art, fictional characters and companies

A fictional launch company pitches AI data centers in orbit: free real estate, free cooling, constant sun. Gridline, Undertow, Gridiron and The Auditor check the claims. Launch is proven. Cooling is not free: in a vacuum, heat leaves only by radiation, so every rack needs a big radiator. Orbit doesn't erase the build-out. It just moves it.

Read the comic

Read it panel by panel

Panel 1: Director Vale Corran, a fictional launch-company head, on the fictional podcast The Cushion Hour, says they need compute now
Panel 1
Panel 2: A fictional Quellmar Lift rocket on the pad at dusk
Panel 2
Panel 3: The Auditor, tethered in orbit, notes that orbit is not free: license, spectrum and launch
Panel 3
Panel 4: Undertow and Gridline at a red-hot radiator; in a vacuum, heat leaves only by radiation
Panel 4
Panel 5: Gridiron holds a large radiator panel: one rack needs one of these
Panel 5
Panel 6: Gridline charges on a solar wing; some orbits see the sun nearly all day, but panels wear out
Panel 6
Panel 7: The Auditor stamps a 100 GW planned sign: plan, not proof
Panel 7
Panel 8: The heroes float above Earth's grid lights: orbit doesn't erase the build-out, it just moves it
Panel 8

All characters, companies and shows in this comic are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental.

Sources

6The Catch at Low Tide

Cover of the comic The Catch at Low Tide: at dusk a rocket booster descends on a ring of fire toward a launch tower with open arms while Apogee, Gridiron and Ines watch

The Catch at Low Tide

GOTB Guard saga short · cover + 7 panels · free

AI-generated art, fictional characters and companies

A clip labeled JUST HAPPENED! goes viral: a giant rocket booster caught in mid-air by a launch tower's arms. Apogee, Gridiron and Ines (The Auditor) check it. The catch is real, but the footage is old: the tower made three catches, then paused. Real footage, old date. A great feat is worth celebrating. Check the date before you call it news.

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Read it panel by panel

Panel 1: Ines scrolls a viral clip labeled JUST HAPPENED! and asks when it was filmed
Panel 1
Panel 2: Apogee reads the sky with her sextant: a real catch, but the stars don't match tonight
Panel 2
Panel 3: Gridiron lays his gauntlet on a tower girder: three catches, then a pause
Panel 3
Panel 4: Flashback: the booster hovers between the open tower arms as its engines throttle down
Panel 4
Panel 5: Ines lays out three dated archive cards and stamps the viral post RE-UPLOAD
Panel 5
Panel 6: The fan account updates its caption to Throwback: Apogee says amazing is enough, it does not have to be new
Panel 6
Panel 7: The three heroes sit on the tower deck at night under a sky marked NEXT FLIGHT: TBD
Panel 7

All characters, companies and shows in this comic are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental.

Sources

7For Teachers

Teacher Guide: “The Fuel That Runs AI,” Part 1

One page, 8 panels · teen edition (ages 10–15) · AI-generated art, fictional characters · facts as of Oct 22, 2026 · Time: 30–45 min · Read the comic

Big idea: AI doesn’t read whole sentences. It processes tokens, and processing tokens takes real computers in data centers that run on electricity. “Tokens are the fuel. Data centers are the engines.”

Learning objectives: students can

  1. define a token as a small piece of text, about ¾ of a word in English;
  2. explain that input, output and hidden “thinking” all count;
  3. read a very large number (a quadrillion is a thousand trillion) and a growth claim with its date and source;
  4. connect AI use to data centers and electricity demand.

Grade-band alignment (AI4K12 Five Big Ideas; AAAI + CSTA)

BandFitFocus
3–5 (read aloud, kids-level framing)LightText is broken into pieces; computers need electricity (Big Idea 2 Representation, Big Idea 5 Societal Impact).
6–8 (core audience)StrongTokens as how AI represents text (BI 2); token counting and big numbers; AI’s energy footprint (BI 5).
9–12Good, with extensionInput/output/reasoning tokens; evaluating company-reported statistics; contested energy projections (BI 5).

Not covered: Perception (BI 1), Learning (BI 3, beyond a mention), Natural Interaction (BI 4).

Lesson flow:

  1. 5 min · Hook: “What does AI use up when you ask it something?”
  2. 10 min · Read the comic panel by panel
  3. 10 min · Token activity: split a sentence into rough tokens (about 4 letters each) and estimate: 100 tokens ≈ 75 words
  4. 10 min · Discussion
  5. 5 min · Exit ticket: “Tokens are the ___. Data centers are the ___.”

Discussion questions

  1. In your own words, what is a token? Why isn’t one token the same as one word?
  2. Your question, the AI’s answer and its hidden “thinking” all count. Why would a company count all three?
  3. Google said “over 3.2 quadrillion tokens a month” in May 2026. Why does the date matter? Who reported the number, and how could we check it?
  4. Google called the jump “7 times”; the exact math is about 6.7. When is rounding OK, and when is it misleading?
  5. One AI data center can use as much electricity as about 100,000 homes. What might a community want to know before one is built nearby?
  6. The fuel and engine comparison is an analogy. Where does it work, and where does it break down?

Key facts (say them safely)

  • 1 token ≈ 4 characters ≈ ¾ of an English word; estimates vary by language and model.
  • As of May 19, 2026, Google said it processes over 3.2 quadrillion tokens a month (company statement), up from about 480 trillion a year earlier.
  • A typical AI-focused data center uses as much electricity as about 100,000 homes (IEA).
  • U.S. data centers used about 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023; projections for 2028 range from 6.7% to 12% (DOE; experts disagree).

Sources

Accessibility: the motion comic has no flashing, and each caption stays on screen for 4.6 s. Nonpartisan; companies are named only as data sources.

8About these editions

These are free sample editions. The full stories are much longer. Want a printed copy? Order the print edition (printing costs apply).

AI-generated art, fictional characters

Nonpartisan, classroom-safe, every fact sourced. Back to GOTB Comics.

© 2026 GOTB Consulting, LLC · CC BY-NC 4.0 · AI-generated art, fictional characters · gotbconsulting.com/comics/library