Comic Book Binding: The Many Faces of Batman in Comic Binding

I posted an article a few weeks ago about how comic book binding allows a lot of creativity and uniqueness in how a volume comes together. One of the characters that really show off a slew of possibilities for comic binding is Batman. I don't know anybody with a truly 'complete' Batman collection. At over 70 years of material being produced, most collectors have a certain era or run that they gravitate towards. That collection probably has not only single issues but trade paperbacks and graphic novels also, hence making for a good candidate for comic binding, whether it is binding by artist, writer, story arcs, or chronological order. For your perusal, here is a sample of my personal Batman collections I'm looking to create bound volumes for. I post what issues I would use, but I'll also note other possibilities or combinations in similarly themed editions:

Batman - The Jim Starlin Era featuring Batman issues 414-430 and The Cult: When I got seriously into reading Batman back in 1988 or so, it was Jim Starlin's stories that really got me into the character. After years of selling and re-selling my collection and now deciding to go the collected edition or bound volume route, I purposefully re-bought every Jim Starlin Batman issue to add to the trade paperbacks I have and will have it bound into one collection. This includes such classic storylines as Ten Nights of the Beast and A Death in the Family. The Cult takes place sometime before Jason Todd's death in Death in the Family, so I may place it at the end of the volume due to the paper quality and cardstock covers or remove the covers altogether and place it chronologically, or perhaps leave those issues out altogether.

Batman - The 50th Anniversary Collection featuring Batman 433-447 and Detective Comics 598-600: This collection may change as I dwell on it some more. I may add or expand on it, but this is basically what I have from the 1989 era when the Tim Burton movie came out that doesn't go in the other collections (such as the Jim Starlin collection noted above) I'm already mapping out. It's nearly complete as it stands currently and includes interesting storylines such as the Many Deaths of Batman, Year 3, A Lonely Place of Dying and Blind Justice.

Batman - Shadow of the Bat featuring Shadow of the Bat 1-15, 36-47: I decided that I really liked some of the early story arcs of the Shadow of the Bat series, so I mapped out a volume of issues that didn't fall into complete crossover madness with the other Batman titles. The so-called 'missing' issues would get bound into crossover volumes such as Knightfall. Sometime after issue 47 the cover logo changes and even more crossovers occur, so I thought a simple volume of the self-contained story arcs like The Last Arkham would suffice. A similar volume that would be similarly put together would be the issues from the Legends of the Dark Knight series, which was much better at staying with the self-contained story arcs within the series.

Batman - the Modern Age Annuals: I've decided that instead of inserting Batman related annuals into the main series chronologically they would work great in their own volumes (besides the fact that annuals are cheap and I have more of them currently). Most annuals are self-contained stories, and as the years went on many of them had similar related themes in certain years (Year One, Elseworlds, Bloodlines, etc.) I figured out a pretty decent mapping of annuals and specials for Batman (and family) in the modern age:

Volume 1: 1982-1989
Batman Annual 8
Batman Special
Batman and the Outsiders Annual 1
Batman Annual 9
Batman and the Outsiders Annual 2
Batman Annual 10
Batman Annual 11
Action Comics Annual 1
Batman Annual 12
Batgirl Special
Detective Comics Annual 1
Green Arrow Annual 1
The Question Annual 1
Batman Annual 13
Detective Comics Annual 2

Volume 2: 1990-1993
Batman Annual 14
Detective Comics Annual 3
Batman Annual 15
Detective Comics Annual 4
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 1
Batman Annual 16
Detective Comics Annual 5
Robin Annual 1
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 2
Batman Annual 17
Detective Comics Annual 6
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 3
Shadow of the Bat Annual 1
Robin Annual 2

Volume 3: 1994-1996
Batman Annual 18
Detective Comics Annual 7
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 4
Shadow of the Bat Annual 2
Robin Annual 3
Batman Annual 19
Detective Comics Annual 8
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 5
Shadow of the Bat Annual 3
Robin Annual 4
Batman Annual 20
Detective Comics Annual 9
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 6
Shadow of the Bat Annual 4
Robin Annual 5

Volume 4: 1997-2008
Batman Annual 21
Detective Comics Annual 10
Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 7
Shadow of the Bat Annual 5
Robin Annual 6
Nightwing Annual 1
Batman Annual 22
Batman Annual 23
Batman Annual 24
Batgirl Annual 1
Batman Annual 25
Robin Annual 7
Nightwing Annual 2
Batman Annual 26

The big caveat for volumes such as this is that even though I wanted to including small crossover issues like Green Arrow and The Question in volume 1, I really don't want to add the insane amount of material needed for crossovers in later volumes. It is always possible to pull issues out for crossover events such as Armageddon 2001 and create those as individual volumes showcasing the entire crossover event.

Again, just by showcasing a small handful of possibilities, one can see that the prospects for comic book binding are endless and why it is quickly becoming a popular option for comic book readers!