A MANGA BY ROBERTO CANALES MORA
Leo joins a competitive AI team. He is talented at solving problems, but understanding other people and looking after himself are much harder.
Book 1 · Version 1.0 · Available in Spanish and English.
Leo Martín
He can explain a model. Introducing himself is another matter.
BOOK 1 · ENGLISH EDITION
290 pages to read the story in sequence, with an introduction by the author, a guide to the real AI challenge, reflections on the team’s progress and setbacks, and a four-page illustrated career profile of the author.
Book 1 · Version 1.0
You can read the complete book here. A voluntary purchase on Leanpub ↗ gives you this edition and future updates to this same book.
JUEGOCONSENTIDO · 27 OCT 2026
Watch the programme in which the comic was presented here.
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You can read the complete volume here. It includes Roberto’s introduction, an explanation of the challenge and the reflections accompanying the story.
Leo can spot a technical problem and misread a conversation. He wants company, although he sometimes needs to shut the door and sit quietly. An exciting idea can also eat up an afternoon he had promised to spend on something else. Much of his difficulty starts there: he works with people who have organised their own day and expect something from him.
Mara studies and works; Nico wants stability; Alicia wants her analysis valued alongside her ability to present it. Jun needs the working day to end, and Nadia has another project to attend to. Inés must divide resources that never cover everything. Leo gradually learns about those circumstances, sometimes after asking for a favour he thought was small.
The technical reflections explain what the team is trying to achieve and how it checks whether it has succeeded. The character reflections return to what you have just seen between people. You can read them after each part or come back later. They help distinguish, for example, a better model from a good presentation, or what Leo intends to do from what he then manages to do.
The competition sets deadlines and scores. Afterwards, people still need to close the laptop, go home, start a shift or reach rehearsal. In theatre Leo discovers how easily he remembers lines alongside a clumsiness he cannot hide. At the gym he has to repeat exercises and stop when exhausted. Humour comes from those attempts and from what each person had expected to do with the afternoon.
The website offers presentation and context in Spanish and English. The English book includes the panels and dialogue, the author’s introduction and the technical and character reflections. Its 286 pages contain the same 13 chapters and 237 story pages as the Spanish master. Both editions are Version 1.0.
Machine Learning Engineer · models and tools
He arrives at ATLAS with plenty of ideas and an eye on what others think of him.
Data Analyst · analysis and validation
She analyses, coordinates and tries to hide when she is uncertain.
Data Engineer · data preparation and lifecycle
Between ATLAS, her master’s and the café, keeping an afternoon free is difficult.
Software Engineer · development and integration
He likes fixing what fails and suggesting something to do afterwards.
MLOps · runs, resources and agents
He wants the system to work and the working day to have an end.
Data Scientist · evaluation methodology
She divides her working time between two projects and needs well-prepared questions.
Scientific direction and laboratory leadership
Funding, deadlines and priorities all end up on her desk.
Podcast and university content
He prepares interviews, looks for stories and checks how many people have watched them.
Teamwork
Leo arrives at a desk slightly apart; everyone else already has work to do.
Shared resources
There is a queue here too, though nobody stands in it.
Decisions
Closing the door makes room for things that are hard to say in front of the team.
Results and questions
Before accepting a score, there are a few questions to answer.
Life outside ATLAS
For Mara, meeting here can coincide with being on shift.
Private space
Here he reopens the laptop or thinks through what happened during the day.
Communication
Álvaro prepares questions and decides what will be heard.
University life
A conversation can start just as the other person needs to leave.
Removing names does not always remove the possibility of linking images from the same person. The challenge behind the book studies this visual relationship between tissue samples.
Understand the challenge ↗