Comic Book Review: The Adventures of Carrie Giver

One of the activist campaigns I'm involved with and very much support is the proposition to convert the child tax credit to a caregiver credit. In other words, those that spend there days caring for the elderly, the infirmed and of course children, would be given a tax credit.

While the numbers work in favor of the people that support this idea, explaining to those who could make a reality is a different story. First off, many people still believe that caring for people should not be paid labor, unless of course you are being paid to take care of a complete stranger...which doesn't really make a lot of sense to me but I digress.

The Caregiver Credit Campaign has come up with a great way to make their message heard in way that's both informative and entertaining. I very smart woman once said to me that since politicians don't want nor have time to read anything important, you have to feed them information in bite-size portions. Thus these folks have taken their efforts and placed them in of all things, a comic book! After all, everybody loves a good superhero story .

The Adventures of Carrie Giver, focuses on a superhero who spends her nights avenging the loss of her own family by rescuing choking children and abused wives. Her alter ego is Carrie Miller, a Department of Labor policy wonk who struggles to convince politicians that America needs a Caregiver Tax Credit, which would provide a tax credit to mothers and other caregivers who aren’t paid for their work. The comic was published by TR Rose Associates, 212-755-4801.

Carrie Giver uses astral projection, as made famous by the X-Men (actually, she does strongly resemble Psylocke before she turned into a killer ninja), to be in two places at once. This is a fairly obvious allusion to the idea that caregivers are very much stretched thin and often have to in fact be in two places at once.

As both an entertaining story and a tool to lobby lawmakers to do something productive for women, I think The Adventures of Carrie Giver works pretty well. It's as educational as it needs to be without being heavyhanded and preachy. Carrie is actually a lot like Spiderman as she attempts to balance her day life as a lobbyist with her nightlife as a superhero. There's even the tragedy element that haunts all good heros.

For comic book fans and social activists alike, I would highly recommend The Adventures of Carrie Giver.