Comix Economix

Comic sample page #1: Why did people invent money?
Comic sample page #2: What is your opportunity cost?
Topics covered in this comic book
View the Teacher’s Guide for this comic

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!

opportunity cost in an economic choice

invention money barter trade economic choice

Chapter 1: Video Economics

Every time you buy something you make an economic choice. Economics is the system of making and buying things that answer your needs and wants. Chester’s friend Tamara has a want: a movie! Chester helps her make her choice by explaining why she is a “consumer” wrestling with “supply and demand.”

Video Economics includes the following topics:

How are needs and wants different?
Who are the economic consumers?
Who produces your economic choice?
How do supply and demand balance?
What is your opportunity cost?

Chapter 2: Money Around the Mall

Chester follows some money around a mall as it changes from cash to a check to a bank account to a credit card. It is all money, but each form of money has its own uses and advantages. See if you can spot all the magic changes in this economic treasure hunt!

Money Around the Mall includes the following topics:

Why did people invent money?
How do you turn chicks into checks?
Why is a bank better than a jar?
How do you buy now, pay later?
What is money good for?

Chapter 3: Career Resources

What would you like to be when you grow up? Chester helps his friend Darryl think about that by looking at some jobs from 100 years ago. He also show how the jobs we do use human resources, natural resources, and capital resources.

Career Resources includes the following topics:

What are economic resources?
What did doctors use in 1901?
How did people vacation in 1901?
Who enforced the laws long ago?
What were teacher resources in 1901?

Chapter 4: The Tax Hunter

Taxes are a part of your citizenship in your country, state, or local government. We pay different kinds of taxes so that our government can do different kinds of things for us. Adults pay most of the taxes, but even kids can pay a sales tax on things they buy at a store. Chester hunts down some strange animals that remind him of the different kinds of taxes in America.

The Tax Hunter includes the following topics:

Who is the Tax Hunter?
What kind of property is taxed?
When is a sales tax collected?
Who pays the income tax?
What do excise taxes tax?

Comix Economix

View the Teacher’s Guide for this comic.