Well-known cartoonist's new art book inspired by a love of coffee shops will support charity

Charlie Adlard, who has been involved with projects including Batman, The Walking Dead, Mars Attacks, the X-Files, Judge Dredd, X-Men, and Superman, as well as his own projects, is launching a new book called 'Coffee Shop' to help save the creative arts and wellbeing charity.

In July, the illustrator added his support to the Save The Hive campaign to try and keep the much-loved Shrewsbury centre open. The 58-year-old has now created his new book which will retail for £20, with all proceeds going towards the centre.

The new book has been created from Charlie visiting Shropshire coffee shops and illustrating people, the things, and environments around him. The illustrator will unveil his new book on Friday, October 4 at the Soden gallery in Wyle Cop, where it will be available for sale alongside other pieces of original art that will be exhibited and sold with proceeds going to The Hive.

Charlie who has previously illustrated and released a book called 'Life' has spent many evenings drawing at The Hive, and has enjoyed its facilities and sessions for years during his career spanning over more than 30 years.

The illustrator is hoping his Coffee Shop book can "play a small part in saving such a wonderful venue" and is looking forward to the launch next month.

He said: "It’s a book to save The Hive. It's a really good institution that's been with us for decades and it's really suffering.

"The first things that tend to suffer when there are cutbacks are the arts. I want to keep the arts as up front as possible.

"I've always wanted to do something similar to Life.

"I always thought I wanted to do a companion piece that wasn't comic connected at all. I thought why not combine my love of coffee and drawing what's within them."

The illustrator undertook a concentrated couple of months where he would visit coffee shops in the region, and draw and photograph his surroundings.

But, despite his love for coffee, the artist had to be careful with how long he stayed.

"If I spent all day in a coffee shop it would cost a lot of money and my hand would be shaking all over the place by lunchtime, let alone the end of the day," added Charlie.

"It was nice to get back to pure drawing without any narrative. Looking at what you see and drawing your impression of it."

Information about Save The Hive and the creative arts and wellbeing charity can be found on the website.