Comix Economix

by Bentley Boyd

This is the fun way to teach complicated economic ideas like opportunity cost, supply and demand, taxes and capital resources. Chester the Crab explains economics using a trip to a video rental store, a safari with The Tax Hunter and the tracing of how a dollar changes forms as it goes through a suburban mall. This funny, colorful graphic novel will excite reluctant readers, prepare students for standardized tests and help homeschooling parents!

24 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2003

About the author

There was no class at Harvard University to learn how to draw a talking crab on Patrick Henry’s shoulder.

But I’ve strung together ideas and curiosity and a little bit of talent for 30 years now and have used comix to teach several generations of young people about American history and civics.

When I was a kid desperate to buy a comic book — ANY comic I could find — I didn’t think we’d ever really get to live in a science fiction world with a computer in every pocket and dedicated comic book stories packed with a rainbow of books of all shapes and sizes. I did dream, though. I devoured the daily newspaper and its comix before I delivered the paper every morning. I read biographies all summer long. I wrote fiction for myself and nonfiction for the school newspapers. I drew my own characters in my own comix (and quickly realized I don’t have the patience for drawing complicated city skylines — so a career with Batman was out). My early career centered on being a political cartoonist for newspapers. An opportunity in 1995 allowed me to transform that work into Chester the Crab and my dream of graphic storytelling.

Reviews

[Caryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like all of these comics. I expected to find them a bit weak, but instead they stand up to many readings and the drawings are diverting and pretty dense with meaning. Bentley Boyd gives a top-level view that a lot of elementary level book writers and teachers leave out. Not condescending. This one makes a good frame for talking about basic Economic theory; you could organize your notes using this!