Collecting Black Canary: Start at the End

Most collecting guides advise securing the centerpiece first, then completing around it. This is good advice in most cases.

It is bad here, and it is necessary to explain why: this file belongs to this small category where the founding issue is both very expensive, very rare in good condition, and curiously unrepresentative of what the character has become.

Why start at the end

Three reasons, and they add up.

The old supply is intermittent. Its original corpus consists of a few dozen fascicles, published at a time when the genre was collapsing, never preserved. They do not appear on sale regularly. Waiting to have “the” part before building means agreeing to not build anything for months.

The 1947 booklet teaches nothing about the current character. The heroine it contains has no sonic power, no team, no explicit motivation. A buyer making this his first purchase would discover an object that is historically fascinating but unrelated to what attracted him.

The price of entry distorts judgment. After a major acquisition, we hesitate to spend on booklets costing a few euros - even though they are precisely what makes a collection pleasant to own.

The opposite approach is therefore necessary: ​​firstly constitute a substantial modern set, pleasant to read, which costs little; then go back in time in stages, as interest is confirmed and opportunities present themselves.

The three eras, and their real cost

Recent times (1991 to present). Five series to his name, several team series, complete stories. Everything is available, everything is cheap, and perfect condition is the norm. This is where the volume comes into play: a few hundred booklets available at any time, for a modest budget. Our article onbest runsindicates which ones to prioritize.

Intermediate period (1969-1990). The most misunderstood. The character then has no magazine in his name: he lives in the team titles, at the rate of a few pages per issue. The booklets concerned are numerous, often affordable, but their price depends on the events that occur there — and these events almost never concern her.

The starting point for this period is its integration into the publisher's star training, in September 1969. It is an accessible object and, for many readers, the true birth of the character.

Founding era (1947-1951). A few dozen booklets, only two titles, an authentic rarity. It is a project in itself, to be approached only with full knowledge of the facts. State and exact number arbitrations are detailed in ourrating analysis.

A double entry shopping list

Here is the point of method which distinguishes this file, and which explains why so many collections remain incoherent.

In each era, the character appears simultaneously in several titles. The same year can see it featured in its own series, in a collective publication, in a partner's magazine and in a cross-disciplinary event. A linear list, ordered by number, cannot represent this.

The form that works is a two-way table: eras in rows, titles in columns. Each box contains a numbering range, not isolated numbers.

Deux bénéfices immédiats.

The holes become visible. An empty box stands out, while a missing number in the middle of a list of two hundred entries goes unnoticed for years.

Priorities are self-evident. A completely empty line indicates an uncovered era, which is much more annoying than an absent number in an already full range. C'est exactement le genre d'arbitrage que notretool for identifying missing itemsis designed to make it obvious.

Resolving the question of the two generations

This issue requires a decision that few others demand, and it is better to make it at the beginning than in the middle.

A 1980s rewrite distributed identity between two successive women, a mother and her daughter. The published stories haven't changed, but their official protagonist has. A collection that ignores this split ends up mixing two characters without knowing it.

The rule we recommend is a break by date, never by name. Set a tipping point year, write it down once and for all, and classify everything that came before it into one set and everything that came after it into the other. The name displayed on the cover is identical on both sides: it cannot be of any use.

Three defensible options, depending on your project.

Keep it all together, considering that you are collecting an identity and not a person. This is the simplest choice, and the one that the market chooses in practice.

Separate the two sets, if accuracy matters to you. You then get two neat collections, one of which is short and old, the other long and modern.

Remember only the second, if your interest comes from recent versions. It's perfectly legitimate, it divides the budget by a considerable factor, and it exempts you entirely from the 1940s corpus.

Collections: be careful with partial reissues

The bound volumes constitute the right entry point into this issue, with one important reservation.

Team series pose a known problem: their reissues are often divided according to editorial criteria which do not follow the numbering. A volume can skip episodes considered secondary, or on the contrary integrate issues from other titles to complete an arc.

For a reader, it's not serious. For someone who builds a collection by relying on these volumes to know what to buy, this is a source of lasting errors: we think we have covered a period, when we have covered a selection.

The solution is simple:use the collections to read, and the original numbering to list. Never construct your table from a bound volume table of contents.

The budget, backwards

A distribution that works, expressed in proportions.

Half from recent times. It's counterintuitive, but it's what produces a collection that we enjoy digging into. A few hundred booklets at low prices are better than a single piece in plastic.

A third from the intermediate period. Team titles from the 1970s and 1980s are widely available in bundles, and this is the best yield on the record after modern.

The rest, possibly, on the old one. And only if the opportunity presents itself in acceptable condition. Don't stock up for two years for a part that may not appear: buy what's available.

This distribution clashes with the instinct of the collector, who would like to secure the summit first. However, it corresponds to what this file really allows.

Keep three different papers

A collection that spans eight decades poses a material problem that is little talked about:the fascicles of the three eras do not age in the same way, and treating them uniformly amounts to sacrificing the most fragile.

Paper from the 1940s is strongly acidic. It yellows, becomes brittle, and above all it contaminates its neighbors: stored in contact with a more recent booklet, it accelerates its aging. This is why an old copy should never share a sleeve, nor be stacked directly on modern paper.

That of the 1970s and 1980s is of intermediate quality. It holds up better, but it browns at the edges and does not tolerate humidity well. This is the category that suffers the most from temperature variations, typically in an attic or cellar.

Modern paper, finally, is stable. Its enemies are mechanical and luminous: the corners open to handling, and the backs discolor within a few months of direct exposure.

Three rules are enough to cover the essentials.

Physically separate the eras, if only through separate boxes. This is the most cost-effective precaution, and it costs nothing.

Interpose a neutral support behind the old fascicles, rather than letting them bend against their neighbors.

Store away from light, vertically, in a room whose temperature varies little. A regular closet is better than a converted attic.

What we can leave aside without regret

Modern alternative covers. Several of his recent series have several per issue. None have any structural scarcity, and their premium disappears a few months after publication.

The appearances of a box. Over seventy years, they number in the hundreds. Listing them exhaustively turns a pleasure into an administrative chore, without contributing anything to the whole.

Reissues and facsimiles. They have their usefulness for reading ancient stories at a lower cost, but they do not fit into a collection of fascicles - and you must be careful not to put them there by mistake, otherwise you might think you have what you don't have.

A final renunciation, more difficult to accept:completeness over the founding period. Bringing together all of his appearances from the 1940s is theoretically possible, since the corpus is short. In practice, this means waiting for each of these issues to appear, in acceptable condition, at a bearable price – and there is no guarantee that this will happen in your lifetime for the rarest of them.

It's best to decide right away that one or two representative specimens from that era will suffice, and devote the freed-up energy to those periods when your patience produces results.

The founding booklet and its authentication pitfalls are the subject of aseparate study.

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