Check out Dave Gee’s Doodle Maps – has your home town been captured?

By John Freeman on November 27, 2020

If you live in one of Britain’s bigger urban sprawls – and some smaller ones, too – and you’re looking for a Christmas or birthday gift that’s a little bit different, how about a Doodle Map of your home city or town, created by Dave Gee?

Dave Gee's Doodle Map - London — *London, Doodle Mapped*

Dave Gee's Doodle Map -Manchester's Northern Quarter — *Dave Gee’s Doodle Map of Manchester’s Northern Quarter*

Manchester-based 30-year-old artist Dave Gee has been busy creating smashing maps of many places, recently capturing all of the famous sights across Blackpool, Lancashire, for a new map – his 37th in a fascinating series.

Previous maps include Altrincham, Chorlton, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, London, New York and many more.

Dave’s latest “Doodle Map”, of Blackpool, was the result of a poll of his fans.

“When we went into this second lockdown I ran a competition of where people would like me to draw and Blackpool got the most votes,” Dave told the Blackpool Gazette this week.

“After winning I asked people to comment what places they would like to see on the map. Lots of the locals helped out and I did research on my own of nice buildings and well known pubs.”

Dave told the paper the map was “challenging”, but he’s brought the seaside town to wonderful life – which is more than the current COVID-19 restrictions have done.

Dave’s been drawing Doodle Maps for around five years, the maps springboarding the creation of face masks and mugs, too.

“Someone once said to me that one of my older pieces looked like a city from above and that gave me the idea of doing maps,” he says.

“My first was Manchester and then that kind of took off and then it just sort of snowballed from there really. It’s mainly what I do know.”

These Doodle Maps are great fun, and if you’re lucky enough to have Dave capture your city or town, do check them out!

• Check out and buy Dave’s “Doodle Maps” from his official site at davedraws.co.uk – digital versions are available | Also available from these stockists in places like Manchester and Liverpool

Maps he’s done so far include: Altrincham, Ancoats, Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Brighton, Chester, Chesterfield, Chorlton, Davenham, Didsbury, Edinburgh, Fallowfield, Gatley, Glossop, Hamburg, Heaton Moor, Hulme, Knutsford, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Marple, New York, Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Nortwich, Nottingham, Reddish, Sale, Salford, Sheffield, Stockport, Stretford, Urmston, Withington and York

• Follow Dave Gee on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

• Read Dave “Doodle Map” Gee’s interview with the Blackpool Gaz ette here

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.