Dutch Bros. Freedom Fighters #1 starts with the misadventures of two laid-back coffee drinkers who nearly get run over by an evil cow driving what appears to be a DeLorean. If that isn't bizarre enough, toss in a frog henchman, a caffeine-starved dragon and a She-Ra reject from medieval times who comes to save the day.
For a company with over 150 locations nationwide, the comic is pretty grassroots. Brant Boersma put the book together with the help of another family member and artist Jeff Egli, owner of Iguana Comics in Grants Pass, OR. The hand-illustrated book features simple black-and-white images, a colorful inked cover and kid-friendly games inside.
Which leaves us to wonder, are these comics marketing coffee to kids?
"The comic isn't about drinking coffee, but diggin life and lovin your buddies," says Brant Boersma. "I think its focus is the culture, not the coffee, and thats how we wrote it. We also sell lots of non-coffee items specifically for kids."
All of the comic's heroes appear with Dutch Bros. cups in hand on the cover, and we're pretty sure it's not hot chocolate in there. Then again, even if it is coffee, some researchers (including scientist Dr. Tomas DePaulis of Vanderbilt University) say that the morning eye-opener could actually be beneficial for children.
We suggest decaf for the little ones, of course.
Only 50,000 free copies of Dutch Bros. Freedom Fighters #1 were distributed, so snag one at your local Dutch Bros. drive-thru now before they're all gone.