This publication was developed to increase students' understanding of basic economic concepts and the historical development of Alaska's economy. Comics depict major historical events as they occurred, but specific characters are fictionalized. Each of nine episodes is accompanied by several pages of explanatory text, which enlarges on the episode and introduces economic concepts. Episodes portray: (1) the precontact lives of the Aleuts and other Alaska Natives, their use of natural resources, the hunting of sea mammals, and first contact with Russian fur traders; (2) expansion of the fur trade as the Russians hired Aleut hunters, attacks by the Tlingits as hunters moved into their territory, the founding of Sitka and subsequent battles, and the depletion of fur-bearing animals; (3) Yankee whalers and commercial whaling in the Bering Sea; (4) shipping Alaskan ice to California, and the sale of Alaska from Russia to the United States; (5) the impact of the Klondike gold rush, and the growth of gold mining in Alaska; (6) salmon fishing and canneries, and the arrival of Chinese immigrant labor; (7) construction of the Alaska Railroad; (8) Alaska's role in World War II, and the subsequent economic boom; and (9) passage of statehood. This publication contains 33 references. (SV)