You may know him as the ghoulish maestro whose jaggedly bold pencil has reanimated, at the last count, over 10,000 corpses during his sixteen years of playing with zombies in The Walking Dead. But for Charlie Adlard, there’s more to life than death.

Charlie created Coffee Shop by simply going to cafes near his home in deepest, darkest Shropshire, sitting down, and drawing whatever was in front of him. Why did he do that? As you gaze enchanted through the pages ahead, thoughts might well arise. These scenes are probably among the most UNdramatic, UNerotic, UNhorrific that Charlie has ever drawn. And yet they burn with life. The strictness and honesty of the compositions (several pictures include Charlie’s own foot and that same pencil case again and again, simply because, well, they were there) root these images in the daily habits of local people going about their business.

There are no zombies, no cadavers, not even the hint of a cape. Instead, people check their phones, stir their tea, or just gaze out of the window, inner life hanging out, messy and beautiful, for all to see.