“Kahuna,” the Shmoo-inspired mascot of Hideaway Pizza, has been a staple of the brand from its earliest days in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but despite his ubiquitousness, few customers know him by name or know what he is (officially he’s “whatever you want him to be”). So we pitched the idea of creating a four-page coloring comic book, dubbed “Kahuna Comics,” to help elevate awareness, and give a fresh spin to Hideaway’s kids menu.

We enlisted the abilities of SpongeBob Comics artists Gregg Schigiel and Rob Leigh to illustrate a four-page tale featuring Kahuna and his traveling companion “Maui, The Magic Kite” that introduced the new dessert, the Hideaway “Sweetza” Cookie. Because we wanted this to be educational as well as fun, we included factoids at the bottom of each page that tied into the action above.

Customers loved this Kahuna adventure, and the experience made us hungry for more comics (and also chocolate chunk cookies).