Story Arcs through Detective Comics Batman ('37) and Batman Comics ('40)

[BatfanReborn]

Gerry Conway started writing Batman #313 (Oct79) and also took over Tec with#497 (Dec81). They alternated mostly from then though arcs stayed in separate titles. From #345 they crossed over arcs as well for the rest of his run. This continued with Doug Moench's run Bat#360-400 and Tec#527-567. Basically, it was a fortnightly comic during this time with Batman 1st and Tec 2nd. Sorry to say that your Tecs 512-67 are only half the story without the Batman issues.

[jjq90000]

Yes... I see what you mean.
I pulled my Detective #512 and sure enough it points to Batman #346 to continue the story.
Ill have to dig up another few bucks to buy the Batman #345-#399 to complete the Cross-Title stories.

The #300 series are running $2-4 on ebay in big lots, so thats another $120+..... Before I can start reading!!!

Am I safe in assuming that there were no cross-overs BEFORE Detective #512 & Batman #345?

[BatfanReborn]

They aren't strictly crossovers but there are some over-arching themes suchas Catwoman, Talia, Lucius Fox, Dick Grayson, Poison Ivy, Mayoral election which are ongoing prior to that. I'd recommend going back to #313 if not #305. Conway wrote 305 and 306. Len Wein did 307-12 (except 311-Englehart).
You should certainly read Tecs 469-476 aka 'Strange Apparitions' (available in collected form) before starting though since Conway picks up on loose threads from there.

Bare minimum though- Strange Apparitions and 345 onwards

[jjq90000]

WOW.

I bought all the "Legends" books without much thought-- They basically are self-contained.
Then I thought I might be able to simply buy all the "Post Crisis" story arcs, Batman #389 & Detective #556 (Nov 1985) forward.

But it looks like Ill have to go back to Batman #345 (March 1982) to complete the stories that cross-over into my Detective books.

Ill try and pick up Detective #469 forward also-- Im a bit anal on this-- just want to "complete" the set without any "holes."

From what you say, that will set me up nicely for a few years worth of reading (As others have mentioned in this thread.)

Meanwhile-- Im just pulling books at random and enjoying.

THANX for the advice.

[BatfanReborn]

No problem.
You do have all the post-Crisis though. Batman rebooted with #401 and Tec#568. You just start with #404-7 (Year 1) then LotDKs, then 408-11 for Jason Todd's new origin bringing you up to the 'present' 401-3 Tecs 568 etc etc. Happy reading!

[Deason]

There'll be some Shadow of the Bat issues needed to complete some story arcs as well, though most of the run was either single issue stories or multi-issue stories contained wholly within SotB. However it was a very strong series and if you only get the issues that are part of a multi-title story, you'll be missing out on some of the best Batman comics of the last few decades.

[jjq90000]

Yes... I saw that in the Index I looked at for post-crisis story arcs.

Also... some nice stuff in Batman Confidential.

[ispacehead]

Very cool. I try and do one or two at least a day. It'll take some years but since I'm reading all the current stuff too it's not like I'm gonna get behind.

I've been doing almost the same thing. About 2 or 3 issues a day.

But I started at about 1968, as I wanted to read everything through the 70's in anticipation for the final Nolan film. (Turned out that was a moot point, but anyway....)

Just finished Conway's run, and it was wonderful.