Fables & Futures
Graphic novel by: Ariam Mogos
Creative Direction + Visual Design: Megan Irwin
Illustrated by: Daniel Jimeno
Three friends—Muff, Zuzo, and Bam—face strange disruptions in Massa Mist and learn that “new” powers, like instant communication or tailor-made foods, can help a community thrive or unravel it, depending on who gets included, what gets overlooked, and how responsibly they’re used.
The Comics
Set in Massa Mist—a lush valley with curious plants and hidden magic—this comic pair follows Muff, Zuzo, and Bam as they try to protect their valley during a moment of fear, rumor, and rapid change. When the mysterious Hairless Ones are blamed for disasters no one fully understands, the community rushes to decisions and argues about what safety should look like. In the middle of it all are three friends who keep running into the same problem we face in our world: powerful tools arrive before we’ve agreed on the rules, the risks, or who gets a voice.
Together, these stories invite middle school readers to question how new technologies reshape relationships, concentrate power, and change what a community values—while showing that the future isn’t something that happens to you. It’s something you make, by asking better questions, listening to the people most affected, and choosing responsibility.
By engaging with the risks of emerging technology through technology itself, students learn that the goal isn’t to fear technology, but to understand its risks. Building within Massa Mist keeps these mindsets present as students create—so as they build with technology in the future, they do so with greater mindfulness and discernment around risk.
GameBender is designed to reflect the lessons it teaches. It does not collect data and respects privacy, offering a starting point for students to explore ethics and responsibility through code.
Make sure there’s a blank page at this address and connect to button: www.fablesandfutures.com/code
Game Bender
GameBender is a game-building tool in the Living Futures Kit that lets students modify games using code stickers to change characters, objects, and behaviors.
Set in the world of Massa Mist, Game Bender gives students a way to explore the ideas raised in the comics by putting them into practice through play. As students build, they practice world-building and explore cause-and-effect by directly editing how the game works.
Set in the world of Massa Mist, Game Bender lets students build within the story universe introduced in the comics, using gameplay to explore and put the story’s themes into practice.
Educator guide
The Living Futures Kit is a creative learning kit that pairs the two comics with hands-on activities designed to help readers build a point of view about emerging technologies—how to think about them, question them, evaluate them, and imagine better alternatives.
The kit invites middle schoolers to make, create, and explore these topics across multiple mediums that allow kids with different learning styles to engage deeply while building a shared understanding. Through collage, storytelling, and game-building, learners begin to understand that technology is shaped by human choices—and that they can play a role in shaping it more responsibly.
What’s inside:
Guided activities that help you:
map cause-and-effect in complex systems
identify stakeholders and who gets left out
weigh tradeoffs like privacy vs. connection, profit vs. public good
practice ethical decision-making with real constraints
tell your own stories and redesign technologies in more responsible ways
Testimonials
“This world is interesting, they have technology but it doesn’t look like ours. But actually they are similar because the technology is so invisible to them, they don’t even realize they’re using it. That’s like us.”
-Student
“I am having nuanced and interesting conversations with students of all ages about [the risks with technology], they're curious and ready to be having these conversations. They just need a framework to think through – that’s why grounding in stories is so important. That’s what this comic does so well.”
-Educator
“It’s cute, funny, accessible, but also tackling an important subject matter that’s not coming up in their classes.”
- Parent
“I wish I had a portal to
Massa Mist”
- Student
Creators
Illustrator
Ariam Mogos (creator and author) is a technologist, learning designer and children’s author investigating the ways that technology can foster playful learning experiences that bridge communities and cultures. She has worked across Africa, Asia, the United States, and Europe, with her work in Kenya and Spain leveraging game design as a vehicle to address conflict between young people from diverse backgrounds. Ariam has also worked with UNICEF, the Kenyan government, World Bank, Scratch Foundation, and the LEGO Foundation on identifying and assessing creative technologies for learning. Ariam currently teaches at the Stanford d.school, where she helps students and educators utilize emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and shapes conversations around its ethical implications on humans and the natural world. She loves collaborating with young makers, as well as facilitating creative learning experiences in local libraries, museums and recreation centers. Her work around digital learning and inclusion has been recognized by Mozilla and Fast Company as well as through the 2022 National Geographic Wayfinder Award.
Daniel Jimeno (illustrator) is a comic book author and art historian who mastered traditional animation and illustrated albums, but decided that his thing was to create and he dedicated himself body and soul to comics, which he has been working on for years for the American market. He lives somewhere whose name I don't want to remember on the Costa del Sol (Spain). His greatest passions are art and making music with his old guitars, as well as his small and wonderful family.
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