One downside to this era were the backup stories in Detective Comics and Gotham Knights. I have some of the backups listed below, as they have more direct ties to current era Batman.

This still requires a bit of copying pages since a lot of the backups share a page with the main story. I have also skipped the brief Larry Hama run of Batman, because those issues were just horrible.

New Gotham
Detective 742
GK 1-2
Detective 743-746
GK 3-5
Detective 747
GK 6-7
Detective 748-750

The B&W backups from GK 4-7 can all go in place. #1 could probably go in published order. #2 is a John Byrne Generations story, and #3 takes place earlier in Batman’s career.

New Gotham 2
GK 8-11
Detective 751-753
Batman 582-586
Turning Points 5
GK 13 (B&W)
GK 17 (B&W)
LOTDK #168

None of the GK B&W backups from the issues in this volume actually go in place. I opted to skip GK 12, since it was a fill-in. It would have gone before or after Turning Points 5.  The story originally scheduled for GK #12 was finally published in a Zsasz TPB in 2020.  The LOTDK issue is from a few years later, but has to go here based on costume details, and Gordon being Commissioner — although I suppose it could take place after Infinite Crisis. I included the issue only because I had gotten the Batman Begins trade for a different project, and had this issue left over. Since I hadn’t sent this volume to the binders, I opted to include the story here so it wouldn’t go to waste.

Officer Down
Batman 587
Robin 86
Birds of Prey 27
Catwoman 90
Nightwing 53
Detective 754
GK 13
Detective 755

Unknowing
GK 14-15
Superman 168
Detective 756-757
GK 16-17
Batman 591-592
Detective 758 (backup – Oracle)
Detective 758-760
GK 18-19
Batman 593-594
Detective 759-762 (backups – Slam Bradley/Catwoman)

The backup in GK #16 can go before the main story. Other than that, none of the other backups fit in this book.

Family Business
Detective 761-762
GK 20-21
Batman 595
GK 22
Detective 763
Batman 596
Detective 764
GK 23
Batman 597
Detective 765
GK 24
Batman 598

None of the GK B&W backups from the issues in this volume actually go in place. I had a lot of back and forth on the placement of Detective 761-762, since they both follow each other and also follow up on the previous Tec arc. I ultimately moved them to the beginning of this book to try to even out the volumes a little bit.

I had contemplated making separate volumes for each of the three core series on either side of Officer Down, but there were enough subplots crossing through them that it wasn’t feasible. At least with this map, I only have 5 volumes, instead of 7.

Tie-ins to Joker: Last Laugh and Our Worlds at War are included here, since none of the main Batman titles really tied in that directly with the crossovers. Also, because of the timing of those two events, it would have left us with very thin volumes.

The Josie Mac backups that start in Detective #763 will go in a Dead Reckoning volume, which will come after Fugitive. The Jacobian (Detective #746-757) has no direct ties to Batman, so can easily be skipped, or just placed at the end of one volume as a bonus feature.

Of course, all of this leads into Murderer/Fugitive.

War Drums (TPB)
Detective Comics #790-795
Detective Comics #795-796 (back-ups)
Robin #126
Detective Comics #796
Robin #127-128

War Games
Batman:  The 12 Cent Adventure
Detective #797
LOTDK #182
Nightwing #96
GK #56
Robin #129
Batgirl #55
Catwoman #34
Batman #631
Detective #798
LOTDK #183
Nightwing #97
GK #57
Robin #130
Batgirl #56
Catwoman #35
Batman #632
Detective #799
LOTDK #184
Nightwing #98
Robin #131
GK #58
Batgirl #57
Catwoman #36
Batman #633

War Crimes
Detective #800
Gotham Central #25
Batman #634
Detective #809
Batman #643
Detective #810
Batman #644

Normally, I don’t like having a large jump within a volume.  However, there is no reason for the actual “War Crimes” arc to take place so far after “War Games”.  In the meantime, Detective has the “City of Crime” arc, which actually takes place before “War Games”, and Batman is starting the Red Hood arc, which can go afterward.  I would have included the three immediate aftermath issues in “War Games” itself, except that would make “War Crimes” really thin, and “Identity Crisis” has to take place between “War Games” and Batman #634.

On a semi-related note, I bound City of Crime, using the backup from Detective #800, and then Detective #801-808, 811-814.

Bruce Wayne:  Murderer?
Batman: The Ten Cent Adventure #1
Detective #766
Batgirl #24
Nightwing #65 (pg 1-8, 12-14, 18-21)
Gotham Knights #25
Birds of Prey #39 (pg 8-9, 11-16, 18-22)
Batman #599
Detective #767
Nightwing #66 (pg 1-6, 10-18)
Gotham Knights #26
Birds of Prey #40 (pg 1-4, 9-10, 19-22)
Batman #600

Pages that need to be copied:
Nightwing #65 pg 14
Birds of Prey #39 pg 11

Chuck Dixon was the main culpret of extraneous subplots. He continued all of his running subplots, which did not dovetail with the main Batman plots. As a Batman-only reader, I did not find those pages interesting, and it also detracts from the Batman story attempting to unfold.

As for Fugitive itself, I ignored the part numbers that were labelled on the issues.  If you read the Detective Comics tie-ins, you understand why.  For about four or five months, the story in Detective Comics was continous from one issue to the next with no space for anything else to take place.  But, if you look at the covers, you have one issue not labelled, and then the rest are labelled as parts 4, 8, and 12, or some nonsense.   The writers did not intend for Fugitive to be a full blown crossover, but more of a running subplot/status quo.  (Pretty much like KnightQuest.)  DC marketing did not see it that way. All three of the core Batman series have individual arcs during this time where at least one issue ties into Fugitive, and continues either from or into an issue not labelled as such. There are also a couple of one-part stories that should have been part of the crossover because of some character moments, but weren’t because they didn’t exactly contain an actual clue to the murder (GK #27 and Batman #604).

I ended up making a few different versions of the Fugitive map because of several issues only needing to be excerpted.

Bruce Wayne:  Fugitive
Gotham Knights #27
Birds of Prey #41 (pg 1-3, 6-7, 9-10, 12-17, 21-22)
Batman #601-602
Batgirl #27
Detective #768-771
Nightwing #68 (pg 1-5, 7, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 20-22)
Gotham Knights #28-29
Nightwing #69 (pg 1-7, 10-11, 13-14, 16-17, 19, 21-22)
Birds of Prey #43 (pg 1-3, 7, 17)
Batman #603
Batgirl #29
Gotham Knights #30
Azrael #91
Azrael #92 (pg 1-9)
Batman #604
Detective #772
Gotham Knights #31
Batman #605
Detective #773-774
Gotham Knights #32
Batman #606-607
Detective #775

Copied pages:
Birds of Prey #41 pg 3, 6, 9, 21
Nightwing #68 pg 5, 7, 9, 20
Nightwing #69 pg 11, 14, 17
Birds of Prey #43 pg 1-3, 7, 17
Gotham Knights #31 pg 22

Surprisingly, in this era of backup stories in two of the three main Batman titles, GK #31 is the only issue during this 6 month stretch that shares a page with the backup.

In this map, I opted to just copy all of the needed pages out of BoP #43 since it was so few, and three of those five pages would have needed to be copied anyway.

But then I decided to find a way to minimize the amount of copy and print needed. Fortunately, when DC reprinted Fugitive in trades, they only reprinted the necessary pages. Asterisks below indicate pages used from the original trade (published in the mid-2000s).

Certain issues or pages were moved around due to the way they were printed in the trade. For instance, the excerpt from Batman #601, BoP #41, Batgirl #27, and Nightwing #68 were all printed back to back, so those issues couldn’t be separated without copying.

Gotham Knights #27*
Batman #601 (pg 5-7)*
Birds of Prey #41 (pg 1-3, 6-7, 9-10, 12-17, 21-22)*
Batgirl #27 (pg 1-20)*
Nightwing #68 (pg 1-5, 7, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 20-22)*
Batman #601 (pg 1-4, 8-22)
Batman #602
Detective #768-771
Gotham Knights #28-29
Nightwing #69 (pg 1-7, 10-11, 13-14, 16-17, 19, 21-22)*
Birds of Prey #43 (pg 1-3, 7)*
Batman #603*
Batgirl #29
Gotham Knights #30
Azrael #91
Azrael #92 (pg 1-9)
Batman #604
Detective #772
Gotham Knights #31
Batman #605
Detective #773-774
Gotham Knights #32
Batman #606-607
Detective #775

The TPB pages from Batman #601 were moved around because they were back to back with BoP #41. Those pages could be easily extracted from the main part of #601, and it doesn’t affect the main plot of the story.

In this version, I dropped page 17 of Birds of Prey #43. It was printed back to back with the beginning of Batgirl #29, and was a jarring transition since the trade didn’t reprint that cover to act as a chapter break. Since the cover of Batgirl #29 wasn’t reprinted, I just used the original issue. If you don’t care about those two concerns, then Batgirl #29 slides up above Batman #603.

For those interested, the Fugitive volume 1 trade contains the following:
Gotham Knights #27
Batman #601 (pg 5-7)
Birds of Prey #41 (pg 1-3, 6-7, 9-10, 12-17, 21-22)
Batgirl #27 (pg 1-20)
Nightwing #68 (pg 1-5, 7, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 20-22)
Gotham Knights #28 (four pages where Robin is discussing the security videos)
Nightwing #69 (pg 1-7, 10-11, 13-14, 16-17, 19, 21-22)
Birds of Prey #43 (pg 1-3, 7, 17)
Batgirl #29
Batman #603
Cover gallery: Full page covers of GK #27, Batman #601, BoP #41, Batgirl #27, Nightwing #68, GK #28, Nightwing #69, BoP #43, Batman #603.

For BoP #41, those may not be the exact pages, since they did a little more creative editing to completely cut out the other subplots.

Volume 2 contains Detective #768-772, GK #31, and Batman #605. I don’t have that trade, but as far as I can tell, those issues are complete.

Notes for all versions of Fugitive:
-The first 9 pages of Azrael #92 are included to give the cliffhanger from #91 some closure from Batman’s point of view, so it doesn’t look awkward when Batman appears next in Batman #604.
-There’s no way around it…the final page of GK #31 is back to back with the B&W backup. That page will have to be copied if you don’t want a random unconnected story in the middle of the book.
-All of the issues listed after Batman #605 are included because they wrap up loose ends from Fugitive, and also conclude the runs of each respective writer.  I split up the Detective arc because of the internal chronology. Tec 773 starts within hours of Batman 605 ending, and goes through the next couple of days as it continues into 774. The end of 774 shifts to a few months later, as does all of 775. Meanwhile, Batman 606 is just two and a half weeks after 605, and GK 32 has to be shortly after Bruce Wayne is cleared.